Editorial | Caught between China and the US, Asean could act as a go-between

At the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur, regional leaders faced each other amid the unprecedented challenges posed by the United States and China. On one side, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are confronted with high tariffs and uncertain security commitments from the US. On the other, they face China, their indispensable trading partner which is also ever ready to assert what it perceives as its territorial and maritime rights in the region. Added to the mix are the conflicts among themselves, such as that which broke out in July at the border between Thailand and Cambodia, making cooperation even more difficult.

Donald Trump’s insistence on bilateral trade negotiations to reduce tariffs amounts to a divide-and-conquer strategy that makes it difficult for Asean countries to bargain collectively with greater leverage. The US president might have been all smiles in Kuala Lumpur, but he did not offer Asean economies any immediate reduction in tariffs or concrete security guarantees for the region.

Predictably, he has shown little interest in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), for which the summit host, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has been blowing the trumpet. First signed in 2020, the free trade pact is generally seen as a counter to US protectionism, so there is all the more reason for Trump to ignore or even undermine it.

He was, however, happy to take credit for committing Cambodia and Thailand to a peace deal – which China was also involved in, facilitating talks between the two – and which regional diplomats mostly agree is just a preliminary step towards a realistic settlement.