Southeast Asian overseas ministers held talks Saturday (October 25, 2025) forward of a landmark ASEAN summit that can formally welcome East Timor because the bloc’s eleventh member and mark U.S. President Donald Trump’s first journey to Asia since returning to the White Home.
The assembly serves as a curtain-raiser for the annual Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations summit which begins on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, adopted by two days of high-level engagements with key companions, together with China, Japan, India, Australia, Russia, South Korea and the U.S..
Leaders are anticipated to give attention to regional safety, financial resilience, and maritime disputes — with U.S. tariffs and shifting international commerce patterns looming massive over discussions.
Malaysian Overseas Minister Mohamad Hasan cautioned his counterparts that “the turbulence of worldwide politics will certainly proceed to solid a protracted shadow over our area within the years forward.”
“Because the worldwide panorama turns into more and more dominated by contestation somewhat than consensus, division somewhat than dialogue, ASEAN finds itself at a crossroads,” he mentioned.
“Our house for neutrality and centrality is narrowing, significantly in areas comparable to commerce, expertise and regional safety association,” he mentioned. “We should proceed to behave because the audio system and never the spoken for.”
A separate leaders summit of the Regional Complete Financial Partnership — the world’s largest commerce bloc encompassing ASEAN and 5 companions: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand — will convene for the primary time since 2020.
Its revival comes as regional economies search to stabilise commerce flows at a time when Washington’s tariff measures have rattled markets and examined many years of globalisation.
Aside fromMr. Trump, Chinese language Premier Li Qiang and Japan’s newly inaugurated Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are amongst greater than a dozen leaders attending the ASEAN summit and associated conferences.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa may also take part as new sectoral dialogue companions — a part of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s effort to deepen ASEAN’s financial ties with Africa and Latin America.
Trump’s return to Asia
Mr. Trump’s journey marks his first ASEAN assembly since 2017 and his first journey to Asia in his second time period. The final U.S. president to attend an ASEAN assembly was Joe Biden in 2022.
Officers say Mr. Trump is predicted to witness new U.S. commerce offers, together with with Malaysia.
Mr. Trump can also be anticipated to preside over the signing of an expanded ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, following border clashes between the international locations earlier this yr.
The ceasefire deal was brokered in Kuala Lumpur in July with ASEAN’s assist and below Mr. Trump’s risk to droop commerce negotiations. His journey may also take him to Japan and South Korea.
“Trump’s presence displays a uncommon second of direct US presidential engagement within the area,” mentioned Joanne Lin, co-coordinator of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute’s ASEAN Research Centre in Singapore. It signaled Washington nonetheless sees worth in ASEAN as a part of its Indo-Pacific outreach, she mentioned.
“However greater than deepening US involvement, this go to is about visibility. Trump desires to challenge himself as a world dealmaker at a time when his home insurance policies, particularly tariffs, have unsettled key companions within the area,” they mentioned.
Tight safety in Kuala Lumpur
Safety has been ramped up throughout Kuala Lumpur forward of deliberate protests in opposition to Mr. Trump’s go to, significantly over his administration’s stance on the Palestinian difficulty.
Mr. Anwar has mentioned the federal government would permit peaceable demonstrations however vowed the conferences would proceed easily. Whereas Anwar acknowledged that some critics could have known as Trump anti-Muslim, Mr. Anwar counseled Mr. Trump for serving to dealer a ceasefire in Gaza “which is close to unattainable below regular phrases.”
Malaysia, nonetheless, maintains that the truce has not resolved the Palestinian query and intends to boost the problem straight with Trump in the course of the summit, Mr. Anwar mentioned.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Mohamad welcomed Mr. Trump’s plan for peace, calling it “an necessary step ahead” whereas emphasizing he hoped would result in the institution of a Palestinian state.
East Timor joins ASEAN
This yr’s summit marks a milestone for ASEAN because it welcomes a brand new member for the primary time in 26 years. It has been a protracted however rewarding journey for East Timor, also referred to as Timor Leste, which utilized for membership in 2011. The final member to affix ASEAN was Cambodia in 1999.
“Welcoming this younger democracy strengthens not solely our collective resolve, but in addition our capability to fulfill future challenges collectively,” Mr. Mohamad mentioned.
The combination of the area’s youngest and poorest nation — with simply 1.4 million individuals — is being hailed as a symbolic step for regional inclusivity. East Timor was a Portuguese colony for over 4 centuries earlier than Indonesia’s 1975 invasion.
A brutal 24-year occupation adopted, claiming tens of 1000’s of lives via battle, famine and illness. A UN-supervised referendum in 1999 paved the best way for independence, which was formally restored in 2002.
ASEAN membership provides East Timor entry to the bloc’s free commerce offers, funding alternatives and a broader regional market — very important for diversifying an economic system lengthy reliant on oil and fuel.
“They’re poor, sure, however they nonetheless have the potential. As a group, it is our obligation to prop up these international locations,” Mr. Anwar has mentioned.
Regional tensions and the Myanmar disaster
Leaders are additionally anticipated to debate flashpoints together with the South China Sea dispute, Myanmar’s civil struggle, and the unfold of cross-border rip-off networks.
Through the conferences, ASEAN will signal an upgraded free commerce pact with China and proceed negotiations on a long-delayed code of conduct for the contested waterway.
In the meantime, the civil struggle triggered by Myanmar’s 2021 army takeover continues to check ASEAN’s unity, with army authorities leaders nonetheless barred from summits after failing to adjust to the bloc’s 2021 5-Level Consensus on peace and dialogue.
Myanmar’s plans for elections in December — dismissed by critics as neither free nor truthful — have put the bloc in a good spot and might be mentioned on the summit.
The army authorities has invited ASEAN nations to ship election observers, however accepting might be seen as legitimizing the regime, whereas refusal dangers additional isolating Myanmar and weakening ASEAN’s leverage. The bloc can also be confronted with the dilemma of whether or not it will acknowledge the elected authorities.
Following the overseas minister talks, Thai Overseas Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura instructed reporters his nation could be ready to ship observers, however harassed that it will not imply endorsing the polls.
“We predict that we have now to be there, we have now to be concerned, publish election as properly,” he mentioned. “The democratic strategy of Myanmar doesn’t finish on the elections.”
