PRIME MINISTER Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will meet United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, as part of the American diplomat’s inaugural trip to Asia since taking office earlier this year.
Rubio’s visit to Kuala Lumpur comes in conjunction with his attendance at the ASEAN-United States Post-Ministerial Conference, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the 32nd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, all scheduled for 10–11 July.
Anwar confirmed the meeting briefly when approached by reporters following the opening of the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Wednesday.
Rubio is expected to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific during his engagements with senior Malaysian government officials, including a courtesy call on Anwar.
In his keynote address at the AMM opening, Anwar stressed the urgent need for ASEAN to better align its foreign and economic policy tracks to reinforce regional unity and deliver tangible results.
“ASEAN’s foreign and economic ministers must move in concert,” he said. “This synergy is essential to translate our unity into action and outcomes.”
Anwar cautioned that the instruments of economic growth—namely trade, investment and financial tools—were increasingly being repurposed for geopolitical leverage, threatening global cooperation.
“This trend is not a passing storm, but the new weather of our time,” he warned. “Power has always shaped trade, but today it increasingly defines it.”
His remarks come amid escalating trade tensions following new tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. On Monday, the US began issuing trade notifications to foreign governments outlining revised import duties. ASEAN member states were not spared: Indonesia faces tariffs of 32 per cent, Thailand and Cambodia 36 per cent, Malaysia 25 per cent, and the highest rate of 40 per cent applied to Laos and Myanmar.
In response, Anwar urged ASEAN to strengthen internal integration by expanding intra-regional trade and investment, and accelerating sectoral convergence to bolster the bloc’s resilience.
“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.
Anwar also rejected any notion that ASEAN should fall under external spheres of influence, asserting the region’s right to self-determination.
“We are a region that charts its course—deliberately, coherently, and with purpose. ASEAN will not be spoken for in absentia,” he said.
Calling for pragmatic cooperation with real-world impact, Anwar cited priority areas such as digital transformation, food security, climate resilience, education and public health. He anchored his vision in the lived realities of ASEAN’s people, invoking citizens from Cambodia to the Philippines to emphasise the community’s human dimension.
“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 concluded.
Among those in attendance were Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, the foreign ministers of ASEAN member states, and ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Kao Kim Hourn.
The 58th AMM and related meetings are taking place from 8 to 11 July under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship for 2025, themed ‘Inclusivity and Sustainability’. - July 9, 2025
