Malaysia: 47th ASEAN Summit kicks off

Theme: “Inclusivity and Sustainability.”

Established in 1967, the grouping includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste is the youngest member and just joined, as well as being the youngest country in the region. It is small with a population of 1.34 million at the 2022 census, and is heavily skewed towards young people due to a high fertility rate. Education has led to increasing literacy over the past half-century, especially in the two official languages of Portuguese and Tetum.

ASEAN can become confusing, specifically because it is accompanied by another summit, the East Asia Summit, a gathering of leaders of the ASEAN nations, the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

This year, US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will be attending. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will represent Moscow while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part virtually.

Beyond the leaders of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit nations, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in Kuala Lumpur too.

High on the agenda is the Cambodian-Thai border conflict, and the US trade war as well as access to rare earths.

The Cambodian-Thai long-running border conflict rekindled in July when dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced along the border. A ceasefire was reached after five days with the help of Malaysia, China and the US. Trump grabbed the largely ceremonial photo op and oversaw the signing of a Memorandum of Intent between the parties to deal with their differences. Despite the high-profile nature of the event, some critics have questioned whether the deal will be more of a photo-op for Trump than a lasting resolution. Ceasefire violations have continued since July while the original issue around border demarcation has also not been resolved, according to Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian opposition leader and president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy.

It is said that the threat of tariffs from Trump helped bring Thailand and Cambodia to the negotiating table in a move that was effective in the short term but also controversial. Critics in both countries say it amounted to economic blackmail – trading peace for trade benefits rather than addressing justice, sovereignty or local needs.

Attendees are also expected to discuss pressing issues like Myanmar’s civil war and the proliferation of scam centres in Southeast Asia, which have earned criminal networks tens of billions of dollars.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, the chair of ASEAN 2025, said rising contestation and growing uncertainty test not only ASEAN economies, but ASEAN’s collective resolve to keep faith in cooperation.

Then, there are trade talks. The Chinese and US delegations began talks on economic and trade issues in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning. The Chinese delegation is led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer represent the US side.

There are no high expectations for breakthroughs at the summit itself and the general expectation is major photo ops only. We hope that the ASEAN members will withstand the coercion this way or another way, that will most certainly come from Demented Donald’s contingent. (They should open a GoFundMe!). Despite this, it is reported that most delegates will try and grab a little time with Trump, to talk Tariffs.