SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR — Southeast Asian leaders are set to express “deep concern” over U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs at a summit next week, according to a draft statement seen by Nikkei Asia, warning that rising geopolitical tensions threaten to derail regional economic growth and stability.
The chairman’s statement, prepared ahead of the two-day ASEAN leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur that begins Monday, underscores the bloc’s unease over what it calls the “imposition of unilateral tariff measures,” which have rattled global markets and put export-driven ASEAN economies under pressure from intensifying U.S.-China trade tensions.
