PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has invited United States President Donald Trump to attend the East Asia Summit later this year, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said this was conveyed to US Ambassador to Malaysia Edgard D. Kagan.
Anwar had received a courtesy visit from the US envoy in Putrajaya yesterday evening.
“We also touched on the Asean 2025 chairmanship, particularly the Asean-US Special Summit.
“Malaysia has also invited President Trump to attend the East Asia Summit that is scheduled to take place at the end of the year,” said Anwar in a Facebook post.
He also said that during the courtesy visit, both sides had discussed bilateral ties between Malaysia and the US.
“We also focused on economic and technological cooperation, which has been a mutual interest, aside from halal certification.”
Malaysia officially assumed the Asean chairmanship this year.
During Trump’s first presidency in 2017, he attended the Asean Summit when the Philippines was its chairman.
However, he was absent from the subsequent Asean summits.
The recent 12th Asean-US Summit and the East Asia Summit were held in October last year in Vientiane, Laos, and they were attended by then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In 2023, the East Asia Summit and the 11th Asean-US Summit were attended by then US vice-president Kamala Harris.
Last month, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Malaysia was making efforts to hold a special Asean-US summit.
“We are trying to be balanced so that we don’t lean towards anyone because we already have the Asean-Gulf Cooperation Council-China Summit.
“So, Asean will continue to drive the direction as an integrated Asean and remain neutral and not take sides with anyone,” added Mohamad.
The US is Malaysia’s third largest trading partner, with exports worth RM17.25bil as of January this year.
