US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with South East Asian counterparts on Thursday, in his first official trip to Asia since he took office in January as President Donald Trump’s higher tariff threats looms large while America seeks to boost its relations with the Indo-Pacific countries to counter China’s influence in the region. Rubio will visit Kuala Lumpur and meet 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) whose ministers are gathering there this week and have bilateral talks with Malaysian government officials, the US State Department said. Rubio is also set to take part in meetings involving ASEAN and its partners. Rubio’s Southeast Asia trip is being seen as part of an effort by the US to renew its focus on the on the Indo-Pacific and look past the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe which has consumed much more time and effort of the Trump administration, as Rubio balances dual responsibilities as secretary of state and national security adviser. However, Trump’s recent tariff measures are certainly going to play a spoilsport for the US secretary of state as the higher levies have been imposed on six ASEAN members, including Malaysia which will come into effect on August 1. Trump announced a 25% tariff on Malaysia, 25% tariff for Brunei, 20% tariff for Philippines and 20% tariff for Vietnam. Rubio is also set to come face-to-face with Russia and China’s foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi, at the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia but there was no confirmation whether Rubio would meet either of them as he would be in Kuala Lumpur for 36 hours only. The US and Russia have been at loggerheads due to the Ukraine war. Trump on Tuesday expressed his exasperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, “I’m not happy with him, I can tell you that much right now" as Moscow ramped up its heaviest blow on Ukraine since the war started in February 2022, Associated Press reported.
