The United States has shut down its international development aid agency and folded foreign assistance into the State Department, opening a funding gap in Southeast Asia. That is bad news for recipient countries, but it gives Taiwan an opening to step in.

• The traditional U.S. model of foreign aid is being replaced by economic strategy, technology controls and supply-chain security, with programmes that cannot demonstrate returns being scaled back.
• The U.S. Agency for International Development was the main source of funding for aid in Southeast Asia; its closure has interrupted programmes and could unsettle regional stability.
• Countries are turning towards nationalism, the United Nations can no longer hold back conflict and unilateral action, and aid is increasingly led by regional platforms or unilateral frameworks.
• The recommendation for Taiwan is "3D": diversify its partners, let civil-society organisations take the lead, and have the government step back into a coordinating role and keep a low profile in implementation.
• The International Cooperation and Development Fund has been operating for thirty years, and its existing programmes in agriculture, healthcare, education and information and communications technology must be sustained — they are Taiwan's most valuable bargaining chips.

Outlook: Taiwan is expected to take stock of its existing aid resources and design new foreign assistance programmes built around the strengths of its own industries, filling the funding and manpower gaps left in allied countries.