Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

The US Trade War Is Splintering Southeast Asia

October 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Charting  future together. — Charting future together.
Photographer: Samsul Said/Bloomberg

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Despite its geopolitical heft, Southeast Asia has rarely been more divided. In separately seeking tariff relief from the US, nations from Malaysia to Indonesia have undermined their collective leverage. They have a chance to present a united front at a regional forum this weekend — a move that would ensure they remain credible as a bloc capable of charting its own future.

President Donald Trump is expected to attend the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Malaysia, which begins Sunday. Sitting at the heart of the Indo-Pacific — a zone central to both US and Chinese strategic ambitions — the region is vital to global trade and security, with a combined gross domestic product of around $4 trillion.