During the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in this capital, Anwar Ibrahim defended the need for synergy to achieve tangible results and was concerned about the changing global landscape.

In his view, the tools traditionally used to promote national growth, including trade and investment, are now increasingly being used to exert political pressure and fragment global cooperation.

The prime minister emphasized, “This trend is not a passing storm, but the new climate of our time.”

Anwar Ibrahim explained that power has always shaped trade, it is increasingly defining it at present, and cited as examples tariffs proliferation, export restrictions, and investment barriers as instruments of geopolitical rivalry, clearly alluding to the policies promoted by US President Donald Trump.

Trump imposed new tariffs on imports to the United States to harm the economies of Asian countries, in particular, forcing them to negotiate reductions.

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