KUALA LUMPUR – President Donald Trump arrives in Malaysia on Sunday on his first visit to Asia since returning to office. A three-nation tour through Malaysia, Japan and South Korea is expected to culminate with a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as tensions rise between the world's two largest economies.
“The first message is Trump the peacemaker. The second message is Trump the moneymaker,” said Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And then, of course, after the meeting with China, I think everyone expects that there probably won't be a major trade deal, but there will be efforts to de-escalate or pause the situation.”
Trade is expected to dominate this week. Trump said Friday aboard Air Force One that he would subsidize American farmers unless he reached an agreement with China and that he planned to discuss ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war with Xi Jinping saying he wanted China to “help us.”
The president also suggested he hoped to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, although the White House said no meeting was planned.
“You know, they don't have a lot of phone service,” Trump said, before urging reporters to “get this information out.”
In Kuala Lumpur, Trump plans to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and then attend a working dinner of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Malaysia, this year's ASEAN chair, has chosen the theme of the summit as “Inclusion and Sustainability”.
The White House said Trump will also attend the signing ceremony. peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailandwhose deadly border conflict he took credit for helping resolve. During his first term, Trump attended the annual ASEAN summit only once.
Sandwiched between the Kuala Lumpur summit and South Korea's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, Trump will make an official visit to Japan, his fourth, for talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and an audience with Japanese Emperor Naruhito.
Takaichi, a conservative protégé of the late Shinzo Abe, has vowed to raise defense spending to 2% of GDP by March, two years ahead of schedule. The goal is likely to draw praise from Trump, who is pressing allies to spend more. She also expressed the idea of revising US-Japan Trade Agreement announced in July.
Trump and Abe developed a close personal relationship during his first term, before Abe's assassination in 2022. Trump will also meet with business leaders and visit American troops while in Japan, a country that hosts more American troops than any other country in the world.
In South Korea on Wednesday, Trump plans to speak to APEC business leaders, hold a bilateral meeting with the president and attend a leaders' dinner that evening.
At each stop, trade is on the agenda, with negotiators still finalizing details of agreements with South Korea and Japan and taking steps towards agreements with China and Malaysia. US and Chinese delegations will meet in Malaysia over the weekend ahead of Trump's arrival in Kuala Lumpur.
“This is not the US president coming to Asia to fulfill a multilateral agenda; it’s the US president coming to Asia and then changing the multilateral schedule to suit his schedule,” Cha said, noting that Trump is skipping the US-ASEAN leaders’ meeting, the East Asia summit and official APEC meetings. Despite this, Cha said regional leaders are ready to participate.
“Everyone still wants to make a deal with the President of the United States,” he said. “They all want tariffs down and will try to negotiate a deal to achieve that.”
Central to the trip is Trump's expected meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, although Beijing has not yet confirmed the meeting. Top US and Chinese officials will meet in Malaysia on Saturday to find a way forward after Trump's threats new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade restrictions starting November 1 in response to China's expansion of export controls in rare earth minerals and related technologies.
Trump said he planned to increase fentanyl levels, blaming China for failing to limit the flow of precursor chemicals, and a senior administration official said China's purchases of Russian oil would also be discussed. Trump said he also expects to discuss Taiwan.
“We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk to us about,” Trump said Friday, adding that he expected a “good meeting” even though he has periodically threatened to call it off over trade disputes including soybean purchases.
Both leaders want the visual and tactical aspects of the meeting to go well, said a person familiar with the planning for the meeting.
Analysts urged caution about what the leadership-level meeting might yield. “During Trump’s first term, high-level exchanges with China did not prevent him from subsequently taking a tougher stance,” said Sun Chenghao, a research fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. “Therefore, the symbolic value of summit diplomacy should not be overestimated.”
Earlier this week, a senior administration official dismissed rumors that Trump might repeat his 2019 meeting with the North Korean leader. Kim Jong-un Jong-unwhen he made a surprise visit to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in an attempt to revive failed nuclear negotiations. Before leaving Washington on Friday, Trump said he would “love” to meet Kim but was unsure whether that would happen during the trip.
Kim says he will only negotiate if the US recognizes North Korea as a nuclear power, and that would only be a further step. strengthened its weapons programs since Trump's first term.
“I think they are sort of a nuclear power,” Trump appeared to admit as he began his trip to Asia on Friday, perhaps paving the way for a possible meeting. “They have a lot of nuclear weapons. I’ll say so.”
