MALAYSIA'S ANWAR CALLS FOR CLOSER ALIGNMENT OF ASEAN FOREIGN, ECONOMIC POLICIES
KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Bernama) -- ASEAN needs to ensure even closer alignment between its foreign and economic policy tracks to strengthen regional cohesion amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions, said Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He said ASEAN foreign ministers and economic ministers must move in concert to face challenges, stressing that such synergy is essential to translate ASEAN’s unity into tangible outcomes.
Highlighting the shifting global landscape, Anwar warned that tools traditionally used to promote growth, including trade and investment, are now increasingly being deployed to exert political pressure and fragment global cooperation.
“This trend is not a passing storm, but the new weather of our time,” he said when opening the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) here on Wednesday.
Anwar said that power has always shaped trade, but today, it increasingly defines it, citing the proliferation of tariffs, export restrictions and investment barriers as instruments of geopolitical rivalry.
Against this backdrop, he said ASEAN must confront today’s realities with “clarity and conviction,” ensuring that unity is not only expressed in declarations but also embedded in institutions, strategies and decision-making.
“This imperative is fully aligned with ASEAN’s Vision 2045, which calls for greater synergy across pillars and sectors. We must build habits of coordination that match the realities we confront,” he said.
On Monday, United States President Donald Trump began sending out trade letters to foreign governments, outlining new tariff rates on imports to the US.
Among ASEAN member states, Indonesia was subjected to a 32 per cent tariff, Thailand and Cambodia faced a 36 per cent tariff, while Malaysia was set to pay a tariff of 25 per cent. The highest tariff rate of 40 per cent was imposed on Laos and Myanmar.
Malaysia’s Anwar also called on ASEAN to strengthen internal integration by expanding intra-regional trade and investment, as well as accelerating sectoral integration, to enhance resilience and relevance.
“To build a stronger, more connected ASEAN economy is a strategic imperative that will anchor our relevance and resilience for decades to come,” he said.
He also rejected the notion that Southeast Asia should be subject to external spheres of influence, stressing that ASEAN must deliberately and coherently chart its own course.
“We are a region that charts its course - deliberately, coherently, and with purpose. ASEAN will not be spoken for in absentia,” he said.
While acknowledging global uncertainties, Anwar said ASEAN must continue delivering practical cooperation with real impact, citing priorities such as connectivity, food security, digital transformation, education, public health and climate resilience.
He evoked the lives of ordinary citizens across the region, from a mother in Battambang to a farmer in Central Luzon and a child in Chiang Rai, to illustrate how ASEAN’s work must ultimately benefit its people.
“From Sittwe to Merauke, from Da Nang to Dili, our region can become more peaceful and more prosperous if we have the courage to see ASEAN not as nations moving in parallel, but as one community moving with purpose,” he said.
Among those present were Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, foreign ministers from ASEAN member countries and ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Kao Kim Hourn.
The ongoing 58th AMM and related meetings are being held under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship for 2025 with the theme ‘Inclusivity and Sustainability’.
-- BERNAMA
