US president to attend ASEAN summit in Malaysia

US President Donald Trump is kicking off his first trip to the Asia Pacific since his re-election by attending the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.
US tariffs and access to rare earth minerals will be high on the agenda of Sunday’s gathering of Southeast Asian nations, while Trump is also set to preside over the signing of a peace deal between Thailand and Cambodia.
Security tight in Kuala Lumpur
Security is tight in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.

The city has deployed thousands of police officers and shut down roads and multiple train stations in preparation for today’s events. Drones and helicopters can be seen regularly buzzing overhead.

Businesses are open, but almost everyone is walking around on foot – except for foreign dignitaries and security forces.

The tight security reflects the many high-profile attendees at today’s ASEAN summit, including Trump and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

More than 30 heads of state and government are due to attend over the next three days.

Police also cordoned off the area around Ampang Park, where several NGOs had planned to protest Trump’s visit.

Will there be concrete outcomes on regional issues at ASEAN?
There is an awful lot to talk about here in Southeast Asia.

This is the last major summit that Malaysia will be presiding over in its chairmanship of ASEAN this year. This has been a year that’s been dominated by relations with the US, most specifically, the imposition of tariffs.

The Southeast Asian countries were particularly targeted by these reciprocal tariffs earlier this year. Malaysia has been leading the campaign to try to negotiate this with the US.

And of course, this is a significant event, because the man who imposed those tariffs, Donald Trump, has landed in Malaysia and will be here in attendance. ASEAN has often been criticised as being an organisation that’s too much of a talking shop that doesn’t take real action.

But Anwar, the Malaysian prime minister, in his opening address, has talked about the significance of this organisation. An example of that is the signing of that peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailand, which ASEAN was quite instrumental in trying to broker.

In addition to that, they will be talking about Myanmar, which has effectively been suspended from this organisation because of the military coup in 2021, and then the ongoing civil war. They will also discuss the prospect of elections being held in Myanmar at the end of this year, and whether ASEAN then supplies election monitors to what would be, to say the least, somewhat dubious elections.

And finally, there is happy news to discuss, such as the incorporation of East Timor, the youngest Asian nation, which has now become the 11th member of ASEAN, completing a 25-year journey since its independence from Indonesia.

Anwar urges unity as he welcomes leaders to ASEAN summit
We have excerpts of the Malaysian prime minister’s speech at the opening of today’s summit.

Anwar said that ASEAN members must uphold unity, adaptability and shared purpose amid an increasingly uncertain global landscape.

“Leadership is never a matter of routine; it is a matter of choice: to define priorities, renew ASEAN’s sense of purpose, and chart a course worthy of our peoples’ hopes,” he said in his address.

“ASEAN must not stand still,” he said, adding: “Rising protectionism and shifting supply chains remind us that resilience depends on adaptability.”