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Joseph Sipalan

Aidan Jones

The world’s largest trade agreement was given a jump-start on Monday, as leaders met in Kuala Lumpur at a “pivotal” time for the global economy, desperate to turn the pact into tangible gains as sweeping US tariffs threaten to slow growth across Asia-Pacific.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) covers 30 per cent of the global economy, with Asean members at its core alongside East Asian giants China, Japan, South Korea, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The pact was signed in 2020 as an antidote to US protectionism.
But RCEP has struggled to become a relevant collective force, with its members clinging to restrictions and quotas to protect their key domestic industries.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said “the strategic importance” of the partnership “is clearer than ever”.
“It is the first gathering of RCEP leaders since the signing of the agreement in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic,” said Anwar, who is chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. “And again, we meet at a pivotal moment.”
Formed from the wreckage of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, the RCEP aims to streamline trade and investments between its members and grow a regional economy already worth as much as US$30 trillion annually, according to some estimates.

Experts have long urged the RCEP to take on the mantle in trade initiatives instead of Asean, a grouping known for its timid diplomacy and slow enactment of its agreements, and make the bigger bloc a real engine of Asia’s growth instead.
RCEP leaders in Kuala Lumpur – including China’s Premier Li Qiang, South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – agreed to the “full and effective implementation” of the deal, without giving a timeline.
In their statement after the meeting, they agreed to ensure that “markets remain open, free and rules-based” and urged signatories to enact “domestic reforms in ensuring a level playing field” across the RCEP economies, which vary from the world’s second largest in China to minnow Laos.
Malaysia was using the RCEP leaders’ summit to reaffirm the bloc’s “key role in shaping the regional trade order”, said Kamles Kumar, Malaysia lead at advisory firm Asia Group Advisors.
The emphasis was on “transforming RCEP from a symbolic pact into a platform for real economic cooperation in supply-chain integration, digital trade, and standards alignment”, he added.


Trump’s summit spectacle
RCEP’s focus on regional trade followed a one-day visit to Kuala Lumpur for the Asean summit by US President Donald Trump, who dominated the spotlight on Sunday.
Instead of picking up fights, Trump appeared pleased when he presided over a “peace treaty” between Thailand and Cambodia, saying the ceasefire between both sides would save “millions of lives”. He also announced deals with Malaysia to secure US access to rare earths and for Kuala Lumpur to lower tariffs for more American goods to flow into the Southeast Asian country.
Trump left the export-reliant region in no doubt that the rules of global trade have changed, as he did not offer to trim tariffs for Asean’s economies.
He also only offered vague words instead of security guarantees to a region increasingly anxious over China’s claims in the South China Sea.
At a separate Asean+3 summit, leaders from the 11-strong bloc, including new member East Timor, China, Japan and South Korea committed to deepen their collaboration in trade and other areas.

China’s Premier Li Qiang said the three East Asian countries’ rapid growth over the past 70 years was only possible through “openness and cooperation”, regardless of their different social and political systems.
Analysts, however, are sceptical that Asean – a bloc whose byword has been cautious diplomacy for decades – could lead the charge in charting Asia’s economic future.
“Sustaining this will require sustained political will that goes beyond PM Anwar’s chairmanship,” said Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, a director with government risk consultancy Vriens & Partners.
“Without a follow-through beyond Malaysia’s Asean chairmanship in the form of institutionalisation, there is a concern that the momentum gained may be lost and it will be business as usual.”


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Asean

Asean summit: world’s No 1 trade bloc holds ‘pivotal’ meeting in face of tariffs

Participants attend the 20th East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Photo: AP

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung meets Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ahead of a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Photo: EPA

US President Donald Trump gestures before he departs on Air Force One from Kuala Lumpur on Monday after attending the Asean summit. Photo: AFP

Asean summit: Thailand, Cambodia sign ceasefire pact as Trump hails own role

US President Donald Trump joins performers for a dance during a welcome ceremony next to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday. Photo: AP

(From left) Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Thai leader Anutin Charnvirakul, Cambodia’s Hun Manet and US President Donald Trump hold up documents after the signing of a ceasefire pact between Bangkok and Phnom Penh at the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Trump joins performers for a dance during a welcome ceremony next to Anwar (left) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday. Photo: AP

East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao attends the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

A child holds a sign during a demonstration against Trump’s attendance at the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: AP

The long goodbye: Southeast Asia adjusts to a post-America trade future



US President Donald Trump waves goodbye as he walks to board Air Force One last month. Photo: AP

Shipping containers are stacked at Port Klang in Malaysia. Photo: AP

US President Donald Trump waves goodbye as he walks to board Air Force One last month. Photo: AP

People wait outside a textile shop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Reuters

The logo of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is pictured in front of Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers on Friday. Photo: AFP

Vietnamese garment factory workers stitch apparel at a factory in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: AFP

Asean summit: Trump jets in to preside over Thai-Cambodia peace deal spectacle

US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on Friday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland as he travels to Malaysia for the Asean summit and other meetings. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Thai military personnel stand near the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia in the Chong Bok area in August. Photo: Reuters

Foreign and economic ministers and their representatives pose for a group photo during their Asean meeting on Saturday ahead of the bloc’s summit in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greeted by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim after a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Saturday. Photo: EPA

US President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka in 2019. Photo: Reuters

Tears as East Timor completes journey into Asean: ‘this is history’

East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao (centre) is presented with a document stating that his country has joined Asean by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) and the bloc’s Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn during a summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters


Gusmao attends the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

An attendant adjusts East Timor’s flag after the country formally joined Asean during a summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Ahead of Asean summit, scam crackdown in Myanmar dismissed as ‘not serious’

A soldier stands guard as people from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar and crossed to Thailand via the Moei river, sit in Mae Sot District, Tak province on Friday.   Photo: AFP

Smoke rises following an explosion in the KK Park compound in eastern Myanmar, as seen from Mae Sot district in Thailand’s Tak province on Friday. Photo: AFP

The KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township along the Moei River facing Mae Sot district (top and right) in Thailand’s border province of Tak. Photo: 2025 Planet Labs PBC/AFP

Members of Myanmar’s military standing next to Starlink devices seized during a raid on the KK Park online scam centre in Myawaddy, Myanmar’s Kayin State. Photo: Myanmar Military Information Team/AFP

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The ‘strategic importance’ of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is ‘clearer than ever’, Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim says


The ‘strategic importance’ of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is ‘clearer than ever’, Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim says.


Asean summit: world’s No 1 trade bloc holds ‘pivotal’ meeting in face of tariffs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The ‘strategic importance’ of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is ‘clearer than ever’, Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim says

The ‘strategic importance’ of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is ‘clearer than ever’, Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim says