Marcos in Malaysia: What did the Philippines get from ASEAN?

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In the midst of a “rigorous performance review” of his administration — covering not just his alter-egos and top appointees, but their subordinates too — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to join the 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. 

The event happens yearly and is largely considered a must-attend engagement for the head of state — after all, it’s not every day that the leaders of all 10 member states converge in one city. 

The summit in Malaysia is also among Marcos’ first major overseas engagements of 2025. The Philippine president, famous and infamous for jet-setting especially in his first year of office, had cut down dramatically on travel, especially as the midterm elections drew near. 

Here’s a summary of the key discussions and events in Kuala Lumpur from May 26 to 27: 

Chairman Malaysia brings together GCC, China

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia played host to the 2nd ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit and the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit. Marcos attended both. 

Why those two summits? The most obvious context, perhaps, would be the unilateral tariffs that United States President Donald Trump had imposed on most of the world. 

At the ASEAN-GCC Summit, Marcos said: “Both our regional groups are enjoined the enduring value of regionalism and multilateral cooperation. In ASEAN and the GCC, we find strength in unity.”

ASEAN, as a block, has been trying to negotiate Trump’s tariffs. Before the US hit pause on the scheme, countries from the bloc would have seen tariffs that ran up to 49% and 48% for Cambodia and Laos, respectively. Manila has also been trying to bring down its 17% rate through bilateral negotiations. 

Trump’s uppending of global norms — in its foreign relations, security, and trade, especially — is seen by experts as an opportunity for other major players, China included, to carve out an even bigger space for itself in the global order. 

Marcos and Li 

Malaysia was also where Marcos had his first interaction with a Chinese leader in a while.

Marcos had not had a chance to interact with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the previous ASEAN Summit in Laos and had skipped the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru back in 2024. It’s usually in APEC where it’s Chinese President Xi Jinping who represents Beijing. 

The last time Marcos met Xi was on the sidelines of APEC 2025 in San Francisco. 

Bilateral ties between the two countries have turned rather icier than usual, no thanks to tensions in the West Philippine Sea. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, including parts within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. 

Unsurprisingly, maritime issues were not a topic of discussion between Marcos and Li, the Philippine President himself recounted. Instead, it was, what else? Trade, including Trump’s tariffs. 

Bilaterals with ASEAN, Middle Eastern leaders 

Marcos met with several leaders on the sidelines of the summit, including Kuwait Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone. 

A new DFA chief 

The ASEAN Summit in Malaysia opened just days after a major announcement from Manila — the “reassignment” of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo as the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and appointment of current Undersecretary Maria Theresa Lazaro as Foreign Secretary by the end of July. 

Both veteran diplomats were in Kuala Lumpur — Lazaro flew in days ahead of the President to attend the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting on Saturday, May 24. Manalo then arrived after to join the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting on Sunday, May 25. Both supported the President’s engagements in ASEAN. 

Despite the change in personnel, little is expected to change in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) — at least in terms of the Marcos foreign policy of being “friend to all and enemy of none” while not “[abandoning] even one square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power.” 

Lazaro, after all, has handled all bilateral and ASEAN affairs in the DFA since the Marcos administration started. She has also led bilateral talks with China over issues in the South China Sea. 

The case of Timor Leste 

One interesting outcome from the (sidelines of the) summit was Timor-Leste’s decision to kick out former Philippine legislator Arnie Teves, wanted back in Manila for murder, frustrated murder, and attempted murder charges related to the 2023 killing of former Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo. 

Marcos, in a recorded message posted just as Teves had returned to the Philippines, said he was “informed of this development” by Prime Minister José Alexandre “Xanana” Gusmão on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. 

“This would not have happened without the assistance of President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Gusmao of Timor-Leste. They have been working very hard to bring this to conclusion,” said Marcos of the two leaders of the future full-fledged member of the bloc. 

Dili, of course, is set to become a full-fledged member of ASEAN by October 2025, or nearly three years after the bloc first admitted it in principle as its 11th member. Timor-Leste has held observer status in ASEAN. 

Did turning Teves over — despite a Timorese court’s decision to deny his extradition — have anything to do with Dili’s forthcoming ascension into ASEAN? It would be difficult to think it wasn’t a factor. 

Timor-Leste itself made repeated reference to the October 2025 milestone in a statement announcing its decision to kick Teves out of Dili on the basis of immigration violations. 

Because after all, why would Timor-Leste want to be associated with a Filipino fugitive just as it’s about to join the ranks of ASEAN?

Before any of these events transpired, Lazaro, after attending the SOM meeting, reaffirmed the Philippines’ commitment to supporting Timor-Leste’s goal of joining the bloc. 

Code of Conduct in the South China Sea 

Months ago in Laos, Marcos apparently decided to shake things up by putting forward the Philippine position in different summits — even in ones where geopolitics is traditionally not on the agenda. There was no spectacle or daring this time around. 

But there has been a steady, quiet, but consistent push from Marcos and all of Philippine diplomacy to find breakthroughs in the decades-old dream of establishing a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea between ASEAN and superpower China. 

“I always push the Code of Conduct. Always. Always. It’s critical to everything that’s happening. You know, if you have a Code of Conduct, essentially, freeze frame muna (at the moment). Okay, hanggang diyan na lang tayo. Huwag na nating palalain (Everything stops. Nothing gets worse),” Marcos told reporters in an interview on May 27. 

In April 2025, during a new round of negotiations between ASEAN and China on the COC in Manila, negotiators finally touched on a “milestone” issue — on how the existing Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea would relate to the COC. 

The aspiration, thus far, is to conclude COC talks come 2026 or when Manila is chair of ASEAN. Most observers see this deadline as unrealistic — after all, it took decades to even begin speaking about the first milestone. – Rappler.com