Malaysian PM calls for dialogue over coercion at ASEAN’s East Asia summit

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday urged Asia-Pacific leaders to choose dialogue over coercion and cooperation over confrontation, as he opened the East Asia summit at a time of sharpening rivalry between the United States and China.

The East Asia summit is a regional forum between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its key regional partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States — to discuss political, security and economic challenges. “Today we must renew our shared purpose, reassert our objectives, promote principles of forward-looking engagement,” Anwar said in his opening remarks. “We continue to advocate for dialogue over coercion...and cooperation over confrontation. We affirm our stand on global peace and security, for multilateralism and international law.”

The summit convened after US President Donald Trump left Malaysia earlier Monday for Japan, following his participation in ASEAN’s weekend summit meetings. On Sunday, Trump witnessed the signing of several economic agreements with Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia — part of Washington’s push to strengthen trade ties and secure access to critical minerals as it seeks to reduce reliance on China.

Trump also attended a ceremony marking a formal expansion of the Cambodia–Thailand ceasefire that Washington helped broker earlier this year. Analysts say tensions in the South China Sea, the resilience of regional supply chains and ASEAN’s response to internal crises, particularly Myanmar’s prolonged conflict, would dominate talks in the East Asia summit.

The US delegation is expected to emphasise freedom of navigation, economic security and a transactional approach to alliances and trade, presenting Washington as a reliable partner for Indo-Pacific stability, said Ilango Karuppannan, former Malaysian ambassador and senior adjunct fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. By contrast, China will likely underscore sovereignty, noninterference and the virtues of connectivity through projects such as the BRI other regional frameworks, he said.