{"id":52,"date":"2025-05-23T03:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T19:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/84news.top\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/us-tariff-tensions-test-southeast-asian-leaders-at-regional-summit\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T03:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T19:33:15","slug":"us-tariff-tensions-test-southeast-asian-leaders-at-regional-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/us-tariff-tensions-test-southeast-asian-leaders-at-regional-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"US tariff tensions test Southeast Asian leaders at regional summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trump’s tariffs has roiled global markets and upended international commerce, and left leaders from the 10-member ASEAN bloc scrambling for ways to limit the fallout on their trade-dependent economies.<\/p>\n

The bloc is also caught between the trade battle between their biggest trading partners, the United States and China, on which Washington has heaped the highest tariffs.<\/p>\n

According to a draft statement expected to be issued by ASEAN leaders after they meet on Monday, they express “deep concern… over the imposition of unilateral tariff measures”.<\/p>\n

Trump’s measures “pose complex and multidimensional challenges to ASEAN’s economic growth, stability, and integration”, according to the draft of the ASEAN chairman’s statement seen by AFP.<\/p>\n

The leaders also “reaffirmed ASEAN’s collective commitment” to the global free trading system, it said.<\/p>\n

After the bloc’s meeting on Monday, the leaders are to hold a one-day summit with China and Middle Eastern oil producers.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic dance continues later in the week in neighbouring Singapore, where the Shangri-La Dialogue forum is expected to draw defence chiefs including US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, while French President Emmanuel Macron was due to give the keynote speech.<\/p>\n

ASEAN, with Malaysia holding its rotating chair this year, has traditionally kept a neutral stance in global power contests but that policy is under strain because of Trump’s protectionist moves, analysts say.<\/p>\n

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has called for a joint ASEAN action plan to address the growing tariff threat.<\/p>\n

Anwar said at a pre-summit briefing that, while bilateral talks between member states and the United States would continue, the bloc must present a united front.<\/p>\n

“We also have one position as ASEAN in our talks,” he said.<\/p>\n

The group, Anwar said, “had very practical policies… and what to me is of critical importance is to build that cohesion within ASEAN”.<\/p>\n

The pressure to shift ASEAN’s “friend to all” posture will likely intensify during the follow-up summit on Tuesday when Chinese Premier Li Qiang joins the bloc’s leaders and officials from oil-rich Gulf states, observers said.<\/p>\n

-‘Principled friend’ –<\/p>\n

Beijing has been courting closer ties with Southeast Asia, positioning itself as a “reliable trading partner” despite tensions with ASEAN members over rival claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Li will attend the first-time summit between ASEAN, Beijing and oil-producing nations including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

That follows Chinese President Xi Jinping urging greater cooperation between Beijing and Malaysia “to safeguard the bright prospects of our Asian family” during a Southeast Asian diplomatic charm offensive in April.<\/p>\n

Anwar said in return that Malaysia would “remain an unwavering and principled friend to China”.<\/p>\n

However, anger over US tariffs also meant that ASEAN countries “won’t automatically fall in China’s arms”, a diplomatic source, who asked not to be identified, told AFP.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a binary situation. ASEAN knows that China is just like the US in that it’s a big power which will bully them when it wants to,” the source said.<\/p>\n

And “while the general consensus is that they are angry at the US… nobody wants to offend Washington either”.<\/p>\n

James Chin, professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania, warned that playing to both the United States and China was a “high-risk strategy”.<\/p>\n

The danger of staying neutral is “that every single foreign policy action that you take will then be scrutinised” by each opposing power, Chin said.<\/p>\n

Others said ASEAN’s policy of neutrality remained valid.<\/p>\n

“The rest of the world should not have any problem with ASEAN’s position to ‘be friends with everyone’,” said S. Munirah Alatas, a geopolitics specialist at the University of Malaya’s Allianz Centre for Governance.<\/p>\n

However, she said the bloc still faced tough unresolved challenges, including “hostilities in Myanmar and recurring tensions in the South China Sea”.<\/p>\n

“But successfully addressing these are not premised on ASEAN’s neutral geopolitical position,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) \u2013 <\/span> Southeast Asian leaders will express deep concern over US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz when they meet at a summit Monday, warning that the unilateral move posed huge challenges to economic growth and stability in the region, according to a draft statement seen by AFP. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Issued on: 23\/05\/2025 – 05:33<\/span>Modified: 23\/05\/2025 – 05:31<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span> 3 min Reading time<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\"Leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}