US President Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia on the first leg of a five-day tour of Japan and South Korea, his first visit to a region rocked by aggressive trade tariffs since taking office in January.
Economic officials from the United States and China began talks in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. The move is intended to signal a future direction after President Trump threatened to impose new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and the Chinese government expanded export restrictions on rare earth magnets and minerals.
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The meeting is aimed at paving the way for a high-stakes meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on Thursday, with the possibility of some agreement on tariffs, technology regulations and China’s purchases of U.S. soybeans.
White House officials announced Saturday that, with the fragile Gaza ceasefire a top priority, President Trump will meet with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on Air Force One during a refueling stop in Qatar en route to Malaysia. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting Israel, will join President Trump in Qatar, officials said.
President Trump arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning, marking his longest overseas trip since returning to the White House in January.
As he left the White House on Friday night, President Trump expressed confidence that he would have a “good meeting” with the Chinese leader. “We have a lot of things we want to talk about with President Xi, and President Xi has a lot of things he wants to talk to us,” he told reporters.
Trump-Xi meeting
On Thursday, President Trump will meet with President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, for the first time since his return.
President Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of about 155% starting November 1 if no deal is found. That would almost certainly lead to a backlash from Beijing and the end of the cease-fire agreement that temporarily suspends tit-for-tat withdrawals.
Beyond trade, the two leaders will also discuss long-standing disputes over Taiwan and China’s ally Russia, which is currently the subject of expanded U.S. sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
President Trump also said he was likely to raise the issue of the release of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Lai is serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong under a national security law imposed by the Chinese government.
President Trump told reporters: “It’s on my list. I’m going to ask…we’ll see what happens.”
Ahead of President Trump’s visit for the APEC summit, thousands of South Korean demonstrators have held a rally in downtown Seoul to denounce Trump’s tariff policies and pressure on South Korea to invest in the United States.
ASEAN Summit
This will be Trump’s second appearance at a gathering of Southeast Asian nations, with his well-documented disdain for multilateralism, after missing ASEAN summits in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Other prominent leaders from non-ASEAN countries are also scheduled to attend in Malaysia, including Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This year’s ASEAN summit comes as Malaysia and the United States grapple with dealing with a deadly border dispute that erupted in earnest between Thailand and Cambodia in July, before a ceasefire quelled hostilities.
President Trump is scheduled to meet on Sunday with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has been a key figure in guiding and hosting the Thailand-Cambodia talks, and the two leaders could potentially oversee the conclusion of a cease-fire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed a ceasefire agreement with Cambodia on Saturday and traveled to Malaysia to meet with President Trump.
The deal marks a formal end to the worst fighting between the two countries in years, but falls short of a comprehensive peace agreement.
President Trump earlier this year threatened to put the trade deal on hold unless the two sides stopped fighting, and his administration has since worked with Malaysia to extend the ceasefire.
The president acknowledged Anwar’s efforts to resolve the conflict. “I told a very good Malaysian leader that I believe I owe him a trip,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Separately, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamed Hassan said Saturday that ASEAN is considering sending election observers to Myanmar, which is under military rule and where a vote is expected to be held later this year.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a letter to all countries sending delegations on Thursday that governments attending a regional summit in Malaysia should reject Myanmar’s military’s plan to hold “elections” in December 2025.
The U.S. leader could hold important talks as soon as Sunday with Lula, who wants the U.S. to cut 40% tariffs on imports from Brazil. The US government justified the tariffs by citing the Brazilian government’s criminal prosecution of former President Bolsonaro, an ally of President Donald Trump.
Lula on Friday criticized the United States for carrying out military strikes off the coast of South America in the name of combating drug trafficking, and said he would raise his concerns with President Trump in Malaysia. The White House has not yet officially confirmed whether the talks will take place.
