American efforts to induce our erstwhile allies to spend more on defense have had some positive impacts in Europe, but less in Asia. This is because the logical response is, or else what?
If you’re the leader of a European state that was previously dominated by the USSR, you already know what life in a Russian satellite state is like, so you have plenty of incentive to beef up the defense budget. If you live in Taiwan, you have a pretty good idea of what happens to you if the Chinese invade, so the American demand should resonate there, too. But if you live in Japan, India, Australia, or South Korea, the situation is different. Life in a Chinese vassal state probably wouldn’t be that bad on a day-to-day basis as long as you weren’t publicly critical of the Chinese regime. That means you have a plausible alternative if Trump’s demands start getting too obnoxious.
Has the Trump defense team figured this out, particularly with regard to India? Based on Trump’s actions on tariffs, I would say not.