Malaysia's Anwar writes Trump seeking summit with South-east Asia
[SINGAPORE] Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he personally wrote to US President Donald Trump seeking to organise a meeting with South-east 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 on Monday (May 26) 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.'
The 10-nation bloc known as the Association of South-east 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. BLOOMBERG
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