Anwar Says ASEAN Must Maintain Balanced Ties With All Major Powers

MANILA, November 15, 2026 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the plenary session of the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila on Sunday that the grouping must strengthen its unity, ASEAN centrality and strategic autonomy, and maintain balanced and constructive ties with all major powers, as the region faces a shifting geopolitical landscape and global economic uncertainty. He summarised the remarks in a post on X after the session.

In the post, Anwar said that, guided by the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, the region needed to keep deepening economic integration and to ensure that the benefits of development were enjoyed by all. He also set out the case for wider cooperation in the digital economy, the governance of artificial intelligence, food security and medical supplies, and for faster work on the ASEAN Power Grid towards a sustainable and resilient energy supply. Malaysia, he added, had raised the importance of science diplomacy, the conservation of biodiversity and efforts to deal with transboundary haze.

Bernama and The Star, reporting his intervention at the plenary, said Anwar told fellow leaders that the 50th anniversary this year of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) underlined the need to reaffirm its core principles. “By requiring our partners to commit to the fundamental principles of the Treaty, we ensure that our relationships grow on ASEAN’s terms — safeguarding our region as a platform for cooperation, not a theatre for rivalry,” he said, according to both outlets. “ASEAN centrality, unity and strategic autonomy must remain the compass for our collective journey.”

On food and medicines, Bernama quoted Anwar as saying that recent global disruptions had exposed the risks of relying on a limited number of suppliers for essential goods. He called on member states to trade more agricultural inputs, including fertilisers, seeds and animal feed, among themselves, to keep essential supplies moving through “trusted green lanes” in times of crisis, and to make better use of regional reserves such as the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve. On medicines, he urged mutual recognition of regulatory approvals, pooled purchasing and stockpiles, and the expansion of regional manufacturing of essential medicines and vaccines, Bernama reported.

Anwar also said the ASEAN Power Grid remained the bloc’s foremost strategic priority and that national power grids could no longer operate in isolation, with regional energy demand projected to quadruple by 2060, according to Bernama. “Accelerating the APG turns individual vulnerabilities into collective strength, unlocking cross-border renewable power sharing and guaranteeing an affordable, secure energy future for our people,” he said.

On the digital economy, Bernama reported that Anwar welcomed the signing of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, which he said would help to double the region’s digital economy to US$2 trillion by 2030. He cautioned, however, that as artificial intelligence increasingly shaped the global economic and security landscape, “its development and governance must not be dictated by the commercial interests of a handful of global technology corporations.” He urged member states to strengthen their collective technological capabilities, safeguard data sovereignty and put in place governance frameworks that upheld transparency and accountability.

Anwar further argued that protecting ASEAN’s biodiversity was “not merely an environmental imperative, but also a matter of regional sovereignty,” Bernama and The Star reported. He said Malaysia had put forward proposals on science diplomacy and a sustainable haze fund, through the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee framework, to strengthen scientific cooperation and more reliable funding for the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. Malaysia looked forward to advancing those priorities at the Conference of the Parties to the agreement in December, and through its chairmanship of the committee in 2027, he said.

Anwar is in Manila to lead Malaysia’s delegation to the 49th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, which opened on Sunday and run until Tuesday, November 17, under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together.” He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, as earlier reported by Bernama and Life News Agency. The summit opened at the Philippine International Convention Center, with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. presiding as ASEAN chair.

Sources: Anwar Ibrahim on X; Bernama; The Star.

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