Nearly 20 world leaders will descend on Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur for the three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and other meetings from Sunday to Tuesday.
This will be the 47th ASEAN Summit.
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Here’s what you need to know:
What is ASEAN? Who will attend the summit?
ASEAN is made up of 10 countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the two countries have a combined population of 678 million people and a gross domestic product of $3.9 trillion.
This year, ASEAN will have its 11th member, Timor-Leste. The country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is home to 1.4 million people.
The summit will bring together leaders from all countries in the region, with the exception of Myanmar’s acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The East Asia Summit is held every year, bringing together leaders from the ASEAN countries of the United States, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
This year’s attendees include US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung, and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will represent Moscow, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate virtually.
Besides the leaders of ASEAN and East Asia Summit countries, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will also visit Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama said the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Labor Organization and the international soccer federation known as FIFA will also attend some of the meetings.
What events will be held during the summit?
Apart from the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit, ASEAN will also hold separate meetings with leaders of major countries in Kuala Lumpur.
A peace deal is also expected to be signed on Sunday, when Cambodia and Thailand sign a deal to end a deadly border dispute. The ceremony will be presided over by President Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Bernama said.
The long-running border conflict flared up again in July, leaving dozens dead and hundreds of thousands displaced along the border. A ceasefire was established five days later with support from Malaysia, China and the United States.
Despite the high profile of the event, some critics have questioned whether the agreement will become more of a photo op for President Trump than a permanent solution. Moo Sochua, a former Cambodian opposition leader and chairman of the Khmer Democratic Movement, said ceasefire violations have been ongoing since July, and the original issue over border demarcation remains unresolved.
She told Al Jazeera that President Trump’s threat of tariffs helped bring Thailand and Cambodia to the negotiating table, which was effective in the short term but controversial. “Critics on both sides argue that this amounts to economic blackmail, trading peace for trade benefits rather than addressing justice, sovereignty and local needs.”
What will be discussed at the summit?
The ASEAN summit will discuss pressing issues such as U.S. tariffs and access to rare earth minerals, which are essential for high-tech manufacturing and whose production is dominated by China.
President Trump imposed “Emancipation Day tariffs” on most of the United States’ trading partners in April, aiming to reduce the U.S. trade deficit. After much negotiation, Brunei’s tariffs are 25 percent, while U.S. tariffs for most ASEAN countries range from 10 to 20 percent. Tariffs for both Laos and Myanmar are 40%.
In response to President Trump’s tariffs, China has tightened export controls on rare earths, a move that is being felt around the world.
Marco Foster, ASEAN director at professional services firm Dezan Sila & Associates, told Al Jazeera that most attendees will be vying for the chance to speak to Trump about tariffs. “Pretty much everyone is going to go after him or get into a room with him or his associates and talk about a deal,” he said. “Everyone would want to meet with Mr. Trump on the sidelines.”
Attendees will also discuss pressing issues such as Myanmar’s civil war and the proliferation of fraud centers in Southeast Asia that have generated tens of billions of dollars in profits for criminal networks.
Why is Myanmar absent from the summit meeting?
Since Myanmar’s acting president will not attend the ASEAN summit, and Myanmar has been embroiled in a civil war since 2021, the country will not take over the ASEAN chairmanship next year from Malaysia, and that role will fall to the Philippines.
In 2021, ASEAN issued a five-point agreement calling for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Myanmar, as well as the creation of an ASEAN special envoy to help mediate the conflict. Four years later, critics said the policy had little impact on the crisis.
Charles Santiago, co-chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera he expected Myanmar and the aftermath of the civil war to be discussed at the summit.
“Myanmar is a destabilizing factor in both security and social cohesion in other parts of Southeast Asia,” he said. He added that the civil war has fueled the flow of drugs and weapons, while also creating a refugee crisis.
Still, Santiago said he did not expect much to come out of the ASEAN summit. “This is going to be a great photo opportunity for everyone,” he said, but “not much will happen” in terms of policy.
What are the limits of ASEAN?
ASEAN has also been criticized for lacking enforcement mechanisms to compel member states to comply with rulings. This makes it different from other regional areas such as the European Union, whose member states must abide by EU laws and regulations.
This is a criticism that has been heard recently over issues such as the border dispute between Myanmar and Cambodia and Thailand.
Mr. Foster said this feature is a legacy of ASEAN’s unique history. The organization was founded in 1967 after a major wave of decolonization around the world. Its structure reflects the norms of the era, he says.
“There is a story that ASEAN was born of independence, so we will never become an ASEAN that restricts (member states’) independence by accepting the rules of supranational institutions,” Foster said. “This nation-state will always remain number one in ASEAN.”
