Overview

• China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed that Beijing will formally sign the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone treaty without reservations once documentation is completed.
• President Trump’s tariffs set for August 1 impose duties of up to 40 percent on six ASEAN countries and have spurred members to deepen economic ties with China.
• U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Malaysia to reassure regional partners of America’s reliability as Russia’s Sergey Lavrov advances Moscow’s multipolar world order.
• The SEANWFZ treaty, active since 1997, bars military nuclear activities in the region and ASEAN has long urged all nuclear powers to endorse its protocols.
• Ministers also addressed a South China Sea code of conduct and ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s civil war during the meeting.