Southeast Asian foreign ministers opened preliminary talks Saturday ahead of a landmark ASEAN summit that will officially admit East Timor as the bloc’s 11th member and mark U.S. President Donald Trump’s first visit to Asia since returning to the White House.
The meeting precedes the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which begins Sunday in Kuala Lumpur and will be followed by two days of high-level discussions with partners including China, Japan, India, Australia, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.
Key topics include regional security, maritime disputes, and economic resilience — with U.S. tariffs and shifting trade dynamics expected to dominate debate.
A separate leaders’ meeting of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — the world’s largest trade bloc linking ASEAN with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand — will also take place for the first time since 2020, as regional economies seek to steady trade amid Washington’s tariff disruptions.
Among the high-profile attendees are Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, and U.S. President Donald Trump, alongside Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, who will join as new ASEAN dialogue partners. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hopes their participation will strengthen ASEAN’s economic ties with Africa and Latin America.
Trump’s Return to Asia
Trump’s attendance marks his first ASEAN appearance since 2017 and his first trip to Asia in his second term — the first by a U.S. president since Joe Biden in 2022. He is expected to announce new trade agreements with Malaysia and witness the signing of an expanded ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, which follows border clashes earlier this year. The deal, brokered in Kuala Lumpur with ASEAN’s backing, came after Trump threatened to suspend trade talks unless both sides reached peace.
“Trump’s presence reflects a rare instance of direct U.S. presidential engagement in Southeast Asia,” said Joanne Lin of Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. She noted that while his visit underscores Washington’s continued Indo-Pacific interests, it also aims to project Trump as a “global dealmaker” amid growing unease over his trade policies.
Heightened Security in Malaysia
Security has been tightened throughout Kuala Lumpur amid planned protests against Trump’s visit, particularly over U.S. policies on Palestine. Anwar said peaceful demonstrations would be permitted but assured that summit proceedings would not be disrupted. He praised Trump for helping broker a Gaza ceasefire — calling it “nearly impossible under normal circumstances” — though he reiterated Malaysia’s stance that the truce has yet to resolve the Palestinian issue, which he intends to raise directly with Trump.
East Timor Joins ASEAN
This year’s summit marks ASEAN’s first expansion in 26 years, welcoming East Timor (Timor-Leste) as its newest member. The young nation, which applied for membership in 2011, becomes the first to join since Cambodia in 1999.
With just 1.4 million citizens, East Timor’s entry symbolizes greater regional inclusivity. Formerly a Portuguese colony, it was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and endured a violent 24-year occupation that claimed tens of thousands of lives before gaining independence in 2002.
ASEAN membership offers East Timor access to regional trade pacts, investment, and broader markets — crucial for diversifying its oil- and gas-dependent economy. “They may be poor, but they have potential. It’s our duty as a community to support them,” Anwar said.
Regional Flashpoints: South China Sea and Myanmar
The summit will also tackle ongoing crises, including the South China Sea dispute, Myanmar’s civil conflict, and cross-border crime networks. ASEAN leaders plan to finalize an upgraded trade deal with China and continue negotiations on a long-delayed code of conduct for the contested sea.
Myanmar’s situation remains a major challenge. The military junta, which seized power in 2021, is still barred from ASEAN summits after failing to implement the bloc’s peace roadmap. Its proposed December elections — widely dismissed as neither free nor fair — have deepened tensions.
The junta has invited ASEAN nations to send election observers, but doing so could be seen as legitimizing the regime, while refusal risks further isolating Myanmar and weakening ASEAN’s influence.
“The key question is what comes after the vote — whether ASEAN will continue excluding Myanmar’s representatives if the junta claims legitimacy through the election,” Lin said.