Thai PM to travel to Malaysia for ceasefire deal; won’t attend Apec Summit in South Korea
[KUALA LUMPUR] Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Saturday (Oct 25) said he would travel to Malaysia for the signing of an expanded ceasefire agreement with Cambodia.
Anutin told reporters he would be in Kuala Lumpur to sign the deal on Sunday and would return to Thailand afterwards due to the death of the kingdom’s Queen Mother Sirikit. He also said he would not attend next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in South Korea.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) were meeting on Saturday to start a weekend of global diplomacy in the Malaysian capital, with teams from the US and China holding trade talks alongside the summit.
US President Donald Trump is due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning on the first stop of his trip through Asia, and he is expected to watch Cambodia and Thailand sign a broader ceasefire deal after he helped broker an end to a deadly five-day border conflict in July.
At its annual meeting, Asean plans to press for trade multilateralism and deeper ties with new partners, while managing the fallout from Trump’s global tariff offensive. It will also welcome Timor-Leste, Asia’s youngest nation, as its 11th member.
Alongside the regional talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will hold a round of trade talks with a Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier He Lifeng.
The world’s two biggest economies are looking to find a way forward after Trump threatened new 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting Nov 1 in retaliation for China’s vastly expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals. REUTERS
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