Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he personally wrote to Donald Trump seeking to organize a meeting with Southeast Asian nations amid concerns over the US president’s proposed tariff hikes.
“A transition in the geopolitical order is underway and the global trading system is under further strain, with the recent imposition of US unilateral tariffs,” he said Monday during his opening remarks of a regional summit in Kuala Lumpur. “Protectionism is resurging as we bear witness to multilateralism breaking apart at the seams.”
READ MORE: ASEAN summit kicks off in Malaysia, with eye on greater integration
The 10-nation bloc, known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, kicked off the first of two summits members will hold this year, with Malaysia serving as this year’s rotating chair. Anwar said he wrote the letter as a part of the consensus achieved by foreign ministers earlier this year.
