ASEAN Summit 2025 in Malaysia: What to Expect in this Summit

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October 27, 2025 | 03:00 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur is playing host to around two dozen world leaders attending the ASEAN Summit 2025, a three-day event running from Sunday to Tuesday. The gathering, which includes multiple bilateral and ministerial meetings, is set to address a broad agenda spanning regional integration, trade partnerships, and more.

Here are some major points to expect this week:

Who Attends the ASEAN Summit 2025?

Held twice annually, the ASEAN Summit serves as the highest policy-making body in the ASEAN bloc. As per regular practices, the meetings are attended by the Heads of State or Government of ASEAN Member States: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Brunei Darussalam.

The ASEAN summit 2025 will bring together a gathering of the East Asia Summit, where leaders from the ASEAN nations meet with policymakers from the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia.

According to Al Jazeera, Myanmar’s acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, will not be participating in this year’s ASEAN summit due to the country’s ongoing civil war since 2021.

Beyond the ASEAN Member States, here’s a list of the ASEAN Summit 2025 attendees:

US President Donald Trump
Chinese Premier Li Qiang
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexandre Novak
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

Agendas for the ASEAN Summit 2025

The 2025 ASEAN Summit opened on a historic note as Timor-Leste officially joined the bloc as its 11th member, marking a new chapter in the regional organization’s growth. The young nation, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is home to 1.4 million citizens, is expected to deepen regional cooperation and expand ASEAN’s collective influence in Southeast Asia.

World leaders are expected to engage in intensive discussions over major economic and geopolitical challenges, particularly the escalating impact of US tariffs and China’s restrictions on rare earth exports.

Trump’s “Liberation Day Tariffs,” introduced earlier this year, have imposed duties ranging from 10 to 40 percent on most ASEAN economies, heightening concerns about global supply chains and trade imbalances.

Meanwhile, China’s tightening control over rare earth exports, vital components in high-tech industries, has intensified economic uncertainty across the region.

Beyond trade disputes, the ASEAN Summit 2025’s agenda also covers regional security and transnational crime, including Myanmar’s ongoing civil unrest and the rise of cross-border scam syndicates that have defrauded victims of tens of billions of dollars.

As the leaders convene in Kuala Lumpur, expectations are high for ASEAN to reaffirm its diplomatic role and seek coordinated strategies to navigate an increasingly complex global landscape.

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