attending

Nearly two dozen world leaders are descending in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur for a three-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from Sunday to Tuesday, and multiple other meetings on the sidelines.

This will be the 47th summit of the ASEAN.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is ASEAN, and who’s attending the summit?

ASEAN is made up of 10 members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Together, they have a population of 678 million people and a gross domestic product of $3.9 trillion, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

This year, ASEAN will induct its 11th member, East Timor. The country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is home to 1.4 million people.

The summit will bring together leaders from every country in the bloc except for Myanmar’s acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The ASEAN summit is accompanied annually by the East Asia Summit, a gathering of leaders of the ASEAN nations, the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

This year, US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will be attending.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will represent Moscow while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part virtually.

Beyond the leaders of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit nations, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in Kuala Lumpur too.

The heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organization and the International Federation of Association Football, better known as FIFA, will also attend some sessions, according to Bernama, Malaysia’s state news agency.

What events will take place during the summit?

Apart from the ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit, ASEAN will also hold separate conclaves with leaders of key powers in Kuala Lumpur.

There’s also a peace deal to be signed on Sunday when Cambodia and Thailand ink a pact to end a deadly border dispute. The ceremony will be presided over by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to Bernama.

The long-running border conflict rekindled in July when dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced along the border. A ceasefire was reached after five days with the help of Malaysia, China and the US.

Despite the high-profile nature of the event, some critics have questioned whether the deal will be more of a photo-op for Trump than a lasting resolution. Ceasefire violations have continued since July while the original issue around border demarcation has also not been resolved, according to Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian opposition leader and president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy.

She told Al Jazeera the threat of tariffs from Trump helped bring Thailand and Cambodia to the negotiating table in a move that was effective in the short term but also controversial. “Critics in both countries say it amounted to economic blackmail – trading peace for trade benefits rather than addressing justice, sovereignty or local needs,” she said.

What will be discussed at the summit? 

The ASEAN summit will discuss pressing issues like US tariffs and access to rare earth minerals, which are essential to high-tech manufacturing and whose production is dominated by China.

Trump launched his “Liberation Day Tariffs” in April against most US trading partners in a bid to lower the US trade deficit. After much negotiation, US tariffs for most ASEAN countries range from 10 to 20 percent while Brunei’s tariff rate is 25 percent. Tariffs for Laos and Myanmar are both 40 percent.

In response to Trump’s tariffs, China has tightened export restrictions on rare earths, a move that has been felt around the world.

Marco Foster, ASEAN director at the professional services firm Dezan Shira & Associates, told Al Jazeera that most attendees will be vying for a chance to speak to Trump about tariffs. “Pretty much everyone is going to be going after him or trying to get in the room with him or his people to talk about their deal,” he said. “Everyone will want to have a sideline meeting with Trump.”

Attendees are also expected to discuss pressing issues like Myanmar’s civil war and the proliferation of scam centres in Southeast Asia, which have earned criminal networks tens of billions of dollars.

Why is Myanmar skipping the summit? 

Myanmar’s acting president will not attend the ASEAN summit, and Myanmar will not take the helm from Malaysia as next year’s ASEAN chair because it has been embroiled in a civil war since 2021. Instead, the role will fall to the Philippines.

In 2021, ASEAN issued a Five-Point Consensus, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Myanmar and humanitarian assistance while creating a special ASEAN envoy to help mediate the conflict. Four years later, critics said it has had little impact on the crisis.

Charles Santiago, co-chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that he expected Myanmar and the fallout from the civil war to be discussed at the summit.

“Myanmar has become a destabilising factor, both [in terms of] security and social cohesion in the other parts of Southeast Asia,” he said. The civil war has facilitated the spread of the flow of drugs and weapons while creating a refugee crisis, he added.

Still, Santiago said he did not expect much to come from the ASEAN summit. “This will be a major photo opportunity for everybody,” he said, but “nothing much will happen” in terms of policy.

What are ASEAN’s limitations?

ASEAN has sometimes been criticised for lacking an enforcement mechanism to force members to abide by its rulings. This makes it different from other regional blocs like the European Union, whose members must abide by EU laws and rulings.

It’s a criticism that has been heard recently around issues like Myanmar as well as the Cambodian-Thai border conflict.

Foster said this feature is a legacy of ASEAN’s unique history. The organisation was founded in 1967 after a major wave of decolonisation around the world. Its structure reflects the norms of the era, he said.

“Because of the narrative that ASEAN was born out of independence, it will never lead to an ASEAN that will limit [member states’] independence by accepting rules from a body that is above the state,” Foster said. “The nation state will always be the number one in ASEAN.”

Brussels, Belgium – Just before the summer lull hits Brussels, the European Union and China will hold a top-level summit in Beijing on Thursday, commemorating 50 years of diplomatic ties.

The mood before the meeting on Thursday, however, has not been particularly celebratory but, rather, tense with low expectations for any concrete bilateral deals. The summit which was meant to be a two-day affair, was also condensed into a single day’s event by Beijing earlier this month, citing domestic reasons.

A series of trade disagreements, particularly over market access and critical rare earth elements, and geopolitical tensions, primarily Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, have marred EU-China relations.

Gunnar Wiegand, the former managing director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS) and currently a distinguished fellow at the Indo-Pacific Program of the German Marshall Fund’s  Brussels Office, told Al Jazeera that the EU’s current partnership with China is complex.

“The EU views China as a partner for global challenges, an economic competitor when it comes to developing new technologies and also a systemic rival because of Beijing’s governance system and its influence on global affairs,” he said, adding that the question of whether China is also a threat to European security has come up over the last few years in the context of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Who is attending the summit?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will visit China on Thursday, seeking to address these disputes at the summit.

“This Summit is an opportunity to engage with China at the highest level and have frank, constructive discussions on issues that matter to both of us. We want dialogue, real engagement and concrete progress,” Costa said in a statement in advance of the summit.

The EU leaders will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday morning, and Premier Li Qiang will co-chair the 25th summit between the two parties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters in Beijing on Monday.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson added that after 50 years of EU-China development, their ties “can cope with the changing difficulties and challenges”.

Is Russia’s war in Ukraine on the agenda?

According to EU officials, discussions with President Xi on Thursday morning will focus on global affairs and bilateral relations, followed by a banquet lunch.

However, the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to arise because of Beijing’s close ties with Moscow, which has been a thorny issue for Brussels.

“You can expect the EU addressing Russia’s war in Ukraine,” a senior EU official told reporters in Brussels on July 18. “China, of course, talks to us often about core issues. Well, this is a core issue for Europe. It’s an issue fundamental to European security,” the official added.

In an address to the European Parliament earlier this month, von der Leyen also accused China of “de facto enabling Russia’s war economy”.

Brussels has sanctioned several Chinese companies for facilitating the supply of goods which are used for weapons production in Russia, and on July 18, the EU also slapped sanctions on Chinese banks for the first time, for reportedly financing the supply of such goods.

China has rejected such accusations and warned of retaliations. Beijing has also reiterated that its position on the Ukraine war is all about “negotiation, ceasefire and peace”.

But according to an article by the South China Morning Post, during a meeting with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, in early July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing did not want to see Russia lose the war in Ukraine, since the United States would then focus on China.

Wiegand said Europe should have no illusions.

“For China, having good and close relations with Russia is of utmost importance to increase its own strength in the global context. They will not sacrifice this relationship,” he said.

“This is the most important negative factor which has impacted the overall [EU-China] relationship,” he added.

Besides the Ukraine war, EU officials in Brussels said, the 27-member bloc will also discuss tensions in the Middle East and other security threats in Asia.

How difficult will trade discussions be?

Another contentious issue between Brussels and Beijing is trade. This is likely to be central to the summit’s agenda in the afternoon with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, followed by a dinner, EU officials involved in planning the summit told reporters in Brussels on July 18.

China is the EU’s third-largest trading partner, but the two have recently been squabbling over a series of trade issues, including 45 percent European tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) and Beijing’s control of rare earth minerals, which are vital for chip making and producing medical devices.

In her speech at the European Parliament earlier this month, von der Leyen accused Beijing of “flooding global markets with subsidised overcapacity – not just to boost its own industries, but to choke international competition”.

The EU has a trade deficit with China of more than 300 billion euros ($352bn) as of 2024. EU exports to China amounted to 213 billion euros ($250bn), while EU imports from China amounted to 519 billion euros ($609bn), according to figures from the European Commission.

EU officials say Chinese companies are benefitting from massive government subsidies and, due to sluggish demand for goods locally, cheap Chinese goods like EVs are being shipped to the EU instead.

To protect European interests, Brussels has begun taking action and imposed tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese EVs last October. The bloc also barred Chinese companies from medical devices tenders in June, among other trade barriers, after concluding that European firms were not being granted access to Chinese markets.

The EU is also concerned about Beijing’s export controls on rare earth minerals.

At the Group of Seven summit in Canada in June, von der Leyen accused China of “blackmail” and said, “No single country should control 80-90 percent of the market for essential raw materials and downstream products like magnets.”

“The present situation is not sustainable. We need rebalancing … China benefits from our open market but buys too little,” a senior EU official told reporters in Brussels before the summit. “Trade access is limited and export controls are excessive. We will go there [to Beijing] with a positive and constructive attitude … but China has to acknowledge our concerns.”

In her speech at the European Parliament in July, the European Commission president said the 27-member bloc is “engaging with Beijing so that it loosens its export restrictions” on rare earth minerals.

Wiegand said while trade negotiations have been ongoing, achieving common ground or any trade deal at the summit this week looks unlikely.

“There is a constructive tone [from the EU] when it comes to ‘de-risking’, not ‘de-coupling’ from China. The Chinese, however, don’t like the term ‘de-risking’. They think it is disinformation. But it is simply the process of reducing trade vulnerabilities by diversifying and improving our own capacities,” he said.

How does China view trading relations with the EU?

China wants the EU to view their trading partnership “without emotion and prejudice”, according to the Foreign Ministry.

He Yongqian, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, told a news conference in Beijing on Monday that China hopes that Brussels will also “be less protectionist, and be more open”.

In an email statement to Al Jazeera before the forum, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) said it hopes the summit will “address critical challenges, including market and investment barriers faced by Chinese companies in the EU”.

“Recent EU measures, such as the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) and International Procurement Instrument (IPI), have disproportionately impacted Chinese firms in clean tech, high-tech, and medical devices. We urge constructive dialogue to ensure fair treatment,” CCCEU noted.

Will human rights be discussed at the summit?

EU-China relations have also been icy over human rights issues. In 2021, Brussels slapped sanctions on Chinese officials over reported human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.

Beijing denied these allegations and retaliated by sanctioning EU lawmakers. The tit-for-tat sanctions were accompanied by a halt in bilateral dialogues between the European Parliament and the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China.

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China director, told Al Jazeera that on the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations, there is “little to celebrate” when it comes to talking about human rights in China in 2025.

“Amnesty International has regularly documented serious and widespread human rights violations, from arbitrary detention and persecution in the Uighur region, for which no official has been held to account; to assaults on the rule of law and the chipping away of civil and political freedoms in Hong Kong, despite international treaties guaranteeing those rights; to the systematic use of national security legislation to target rights defence and criticism, at home and increasingly abroad. The EU, at least on paper, has also come to similar conclusions,” she said.

“At the summit, the EU’s leadership needs to ensure that those words become action and use every tool at their disposal to create positive human rights change for people – not more empty promises at the negotiating table or the speaker’s podium,” she added.

While China lifted some of its sanctions in April this year and hinted at resuming political dialogues between the European Parliament and the NPC, the 2021 EU sanctions remain in place. The bloc said last week that it had “not observed changes in the human rights situation in China/Xinjiang”.

“Promoting and protecting human rights is important to the EU. We will raise the EU’s concern on the deterioration of rights in Xinjiang, Tibet, and other regions,” an EU official said.

Will the issue of US tariffs arise?

The meeting between the EU and China comes amid US President Donald Trump’s global tariff war, which both Brussels and Beijing are trying to navigate.

Trump has announced imposing a tariff of 30 percent on goods EU imports from August 1, and Brussels has been holding trade negotiations with Washington, seeking to strike a trade deal.

China and the US agreed to slash tit-for-tat heavy tariffs for 90 days in May. That suspension expires on August 12. In June, the US said it would impose 55 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, down from the 145 percent Trump had imposed in April. In return, Beijing said, it will impose a 10 percent tariff on goods it imports from the US, down from 125 percent. But trade negotiations are ongoing.

Earlier this year, some analysts in Brussels hinted that tariff tensions with Washington could improve Brussels-Beijing trade ties.

The CCCEU also told Al Jazeera that with US tariffs looming, “China and the EU share a responsibility to uphold free trade and multilateralism while mitigating external pressures” and pushed Brussels to improve its business environment for foreign companies and enhance supply chains.

But in the run-up to the summit, expectations remain low.

“It is quite clear the US tariff issue is an over-encompassing issue … we are negotiating with the US at present. It is clear that there is a need to find and engage with other actors worldwide due to the impact of US tariffs,” a senior EU official told reporters in Brussels before the summit.

“But with China, we are certainly not agreeing to compromise on our values,” the official stressed.

Wiegand also pointed out that Europe’s economic relationship with the US is stronger than that with China since they are also NATO allies.

“With Russia’s war in Ukraine threatening Europe, Brussels will not be pushed closer to Beijing,” he said.

“But as Brussels negotiates tariffs with Washington, certainly there will be an important China dimension in the finalisation of a deal with the US administration.”

Pacemaker

Pacemaker

PA Media

Eleventh night bonfires

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – will meet on Sunday in the remote town of Kananaskis, Alberta, nestled in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, for three days of intense discussions.

This will be the 51st G7 summit meeting. The first took place in 1975 in Rambouillet, France. Back then, it was known as the G6 meeting, as Canada did not become a member until the following year.

Russia joined the forum in 1998, making it the G8, but was effectively expelled in 2014, following its annexation of Crimea. Since then, the forum has been known as the G7.

Tensions at this year’s gathering, taking place June 15-17, are likely to be high for many reasons.

Intense discussions are expected about the unfolding crisis in the Middle East after Israel carried out massive strikes on military and nuclear sites in Iran on Friday. This year’s meeting also takes place against the backdrop of aggressive trade tariffs set – and then paused for all countries except China, which has now reached a deal with the US – by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney may also still be reeling from comments by Trump that Canada should become the 51st US state. In May, Carney stated that Canada was “not for sale … ever” during a meeting with Trump at the White House.

The G7 represents 44 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) but only 10 percent of the world’s population. Within the group, the US is by far the largest economy. Having campaigned for the presidency on an “America First” message, Trump has frequently expressed displeasure about how much it contributes to global affairs.

At the last G7 summit attended by Trump in 2018, his national security adviser, John Bolton, posted on social media: “Just another G7 where other countries expect America will always be their bank. The President made it clear today. No more.”

So, who is coming this year and what will they be talking about?

Who is attending the G7 meeting this year?

Canada is hosting this year’s G7 meeting – it’s the seventh time it has assumed the presidency of the group. Besides leaders of the G7 countries and the EU, which is also represented at the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has invited several heads of state from non-G7 countries as guests.

These include Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who confirmed her attendance on Monday after saying in May that she was undecided, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was invited, but it is unclear whether he will attend.

The invitation for Modi has raised eyebrows in Canada. Relations between India and Canada have been strained since former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of assassinating a Sikh separatist leader in Canada in 2023. The World Sikh Organisation said Carney’s invitation was a “betrayal of Sikh Canadians”, and the Sikh Federation of Canada called it “a grave insult”.

But Carney, who is trying to diversify Canadian trade away from the US, defended his decision, saying it makes sense for the G7 to invite India, since it is the world’s fifth-largest economy and is at the heart of a number of trading supply chains.

“In addition, bilaterally, we have now agreed, importantly, to continued law enforcement dialogue, so there’s been some progress on that, that recognises issues of accountability. I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi in that context,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa.

In March, Carney also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to this week’s gathering.

Leaders of Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and South Korea are also expected to attend.

Will they discuss US trade tariffs?

During his current tenure as president, Trump has imposed broad tariffs on every member of the G7, as well as on most other countries around the world, sparking a global trade war in the process. Trump says he wants to reverse large trade deficits between the US and other countries.

However, it is unlikely this issue will be formally addressed during G7 discussions as Carney will primarily be trying to prevent a fallout over trade between the member states, many of whom are still scrambling to secure trade deals with the US.

The UK reached the first trade agreement with the US in May, when it agreed to reduce tariffs on US goods from 5.1 percent to 1.8 percent and provide greater access for US goods. In return, the US dropped higher tariffs, leaving only its universal 10-percent tariff in place.

Both the EU and Japan are hoping to strike their own agreements before the July 9 end of Trump’s 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs.

Trump also had a rocky relationship with the G7 during his first term as US president and left the 2018 summit – also in Canada – in a huff. At the end of what was thought to be a successful gathering, Trump wrote on social media that he had directed his staff not to sign the final communique – the statement G7 countries issue in a show of unity at the end of the summit – and called then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “very dishonest and weak”.

Even though the communique is never usually formally “signed”, the incident pointed to Trump’s unpredictability, experts say.

John Kirton of the G7 Research Group, based at the University of Toronto, said Trump is less likely to cause a scene this year. He told Indian channel NDTV World that Carney is on better terms with Trump and noted that the US is due to host the G7 in 2027. “He doesn’t want to kill the G7 golden goose before he can produce the ‘biggest, best summit ever’ for the whole world stage two years from now,” Kirton said.

So, what will be on the agenda for this G7 meeting?

The G7 2025 summit website lists three core actions on the agenda for this year’s discussions: “Protecting our communities around the world”; “Building energy security and accelerating the digital transition”; and “Securing the partnerships of the future”.

But G7 leaders are likely to focus on the unfolding conflict between Israel and Iran.

If this does not dominate discussions entirely, other items on the agenda at this year’s G7 summit are likely to be global trade issues, the Russia-Ukraine war and China.

Israel-Iran crisis

Julia Kulik, director of strategic initiatives for the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, said conversations on global peace that would have focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel’s war on Gaza will now likely pivot to Iran.

“There will be tough questions from other leaders around the table to Donald Trump about what went wrong with the negotiations and about what he’s going to do to get Israel to de-escalate before things get worse,” Kulik told Al Jazeera.

The G7 “was designed to be a crisis response group with the ability to act and adapt quickly to international challenges … so in some ways it’s good they’re meeting this weekend as they’ll have the ability to respond quickly”, she added.

Robert Rogowsky, professor of trade and economic diplomacy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said there is no way G7 members can avoid the subject of the latest crisis in the Middle East. “That attack, counterattack, and the US declaration that it was not involved and its warning about staying away from American assets as targets is likely to be the first thing discussed, as it now creates the possibility of a real, all-out war in the Middle East. The major neighbouring parties will have to decide how to align themselves.” Rogowsky said.

Global trade

While Carney is hoping to cover uncontroversial themes, such as building friendlier global supply chains for materials like critical minerals, China may also be a focus of discussions.

Following a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Canada in May, the group issued a joint communique saying they would continue to monitor “nonmarket policies and practices” which contribute to imbalances in global trade. The statement did not mention China, but “nonmarket policies” often refer to export subsidies and currency policies that the Trump administration says provide an advantage in international trade. The statement was seen as a swipe at China’s trade practices, in particular its lending practices, which many see as adding debt for poorer countries.

Leaders of the G7 are also expected to discuss concerns about rising tensions between China and Taiwan in the East and South China Seas, as well as China’s expanding military presence there.

Russia-Ukraine war

A joint statement of G7 foreign ministers following an earlier meeting in Quebec in mid-March expressed strong support for Kyiv. It said finance ministers had “discussed imposing further costs on Russia” if Moscow did not agree to a ceasefire.

The UK and the EU announced a new round of sanctions against Russia in May, but Trump, who has been conducting discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the US would not follow suit.

Sanctions against Russia and achieving a ceasefire may, therefore, also be a focus of discussions this week.

Global development

This could be a thorny issue.

Global development, particularly in African countries, has long been a primary focus of G7 discussions. However, this year, the US has made clear that it wishes to de-prioritise economic and humanitarian assistance for other countries. It has largely shuttered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and says it plans large cuts to funding for other health and development initiatives overseas, as well.

What meetings could take place on the sidelines of the G7 summit?

US-EU

Donald Trump is expected to hold meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba. Both leaders are eager to agree on a trade deal with Trump as soon as possible to avoid reciprocal tariffs, due to come back into place following a pause in early July.

US-Canada-Mexico

Trump, Carney and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum may also hold a separate meeting of North American leaders on trade and border security. In February, Trump postponed his planned 25-percent import tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods at the last minute. Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sheinbaum both agreed to increase border security to prevent the trafficking of drugs and migrants into the US, averting a trade war. Trump says he has been particularly concerned about the flow of the drug fentanyl into the US from both Canada and Mexico.

US-South Africa

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has told reporters he will have a second meeting with Trump during the G7 summit, following the two leaders’ meeting in Washington, DC, on May 21, when Trump accused South Africa of “genocide” against white farmers. Earlier in May, 59 white “refugees” were flown from South Africa to the US as part of a relocation plan for white South Africans devised by the Trump administration.