The strategic landscape of the Asia-Pacific is now shaped by the competition
between China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the United States’ Free
and Open Indo-Pacific strategy. The Sino-U.S. strategic competition has
greatly impacted the strategic outlook and foreign policies of middle powers
in the region. This paper argues that the Asia-Pacific middle powers are
functioning along the lines of omnidirectional hedging which is relatively a
new concept in the IR discourse.