Trump returns to Asia for ASEAN summit amid trade, security talks

The ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur will welcome East Timor as the 11th member and host US President Donald Trump’s first Asia trip in his second term. Leaders will discuss security, trade resilience, maritime disputes, and regional economic partnership

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asian foreign Ministers held talks Saturday ahead of a landmark ASEAN summit that will formally welcome East Timor as the bloc’s 11th member and mark US President Donald Trump’s first trip to Asia since returning to the White House.

The meeting serves as a curtain-raiser for the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which starts on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, followed by two days of high-level engagements with key partners, including China, Japan, India, Australia, Russia, South Korea and the US.

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Leaders are expected to focus on regional security, economic resilience, and maritime disputes, with US tariffs and shifting global trade patterns looming large over discussions.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan cautioned his counterparts that “the turbulence of global politics will surely continue to cast a long shadow over our region in the years ahead.”

“As the international landscape becomes increasingly dominated by contestation rather than consensus, division rather than dialogue, ASEAN finds itself at a crossroads,” he said.

“Our space for neutrality and centrality is narrowing, particularly in areas such as trade, technology and regional security arrangement,” he said. “We must continue to act as the speakers and not the spoken for.”

A separate leaders summit of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — the world’s largest trade bloc encompassing ASEAN and five partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand — will convene for the first time since 2020.

Its revival comes as regional economies seek to stabilise trade flows at a time when Washington’s tariff measures have rattled markets and tested decades of globalisation.

Apart from Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japan’s newly inaugurated Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are among more than a dozen leaders attending the ASEAN summit and related meetings.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will also participate as new sectoral dialogue partners — part of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s effort to deepen ASEAN’s economic ties with Africa and Latin America.

Trump’s return to Asia

Trump’s trip marks his first ASEAN meeting since 2017 and his first journey to Asia in his second term. The last US president to attend an ASEAN meeting was Joe Biden in 2022.

Officials say Trump is expected to witness new US trade deals, including with Malaysia.

Trump is also expected to preside over the signing of an expanded ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, following border clashes between the countries earlier this year.

The ceasefire deal was brokered in Kuala Lumpur in July with ASEAN’s support and under Trump’s threat to suspend trade negotiations. His trip will also take him to Japan and South Korea.

“Trump’s presence reflects a rare moment of direct US presidential engagement in the region,” said Joanne Lin, co-coordinator of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute’s ASEAN Studies Centre in Singapore. It signaled Washington still sees value in ASEAN as part of its Indo-Pacific outreach, she said.

“But more than deepening US involvement, this visit is about visibility. Trump wants to project himself as a global dealmaker at a time when his domestic policies, especially tariffs, have unsettled key partners in the region,” Lin said.