Rubio to make first visit to Indo-Pacific region
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Malaysia this week to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian countries as the best diplomat of America during his first visit to the Indo-Pacific region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Rubio will travel between July 8-12 and attend the meetings in the Southeastern Asian Nations Association and Kuala Lumpur.
Rubio will try to establish relations with partners and allies in the area that is not angry by President Donald Trump’s global tariff attack.
The journey is a renewed part of the focus on the Indo-Pacific, and the Trump administration’s effort to look beyond the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe.
Last week, Rubio hosted Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and colleagues from India and Japan.
Washington’s main strategic rival China has announced a common initiative to supply critical minerals, a vital sector for high -tech practices dominated by China.
Trump also announced that he reached a trade agreement with an important Southeast Asian partner and ASEAN member Vietnam, and that he could reach someone with India, but Japan doubted Washington’s main Indo-Pacific ally and a possible agreement with a large importer and investor in the United States.
Although Rubio has seen Indo-Pacific the perceived threat brought by China since his time he took office in January, he did not visit Japan or neighbor South Korea, the other major US ally in Northeast Asia, although he saw Indo-Pacific as the main strategic priority.
The ASEAN countries were nervous about Trump’s tariff attack and questioned the desire of the “first” administration to interact with the region as diplomatic and economically.
“There is a hunger to make sure that the US’s Indian-Pacific the US of the United States as the key to US national security,” Washington’s Strategic and International Research Center Southeastern Asian Program Director, Director of Southeastern Asia Program. He said.
Other ASEAN countries can be encouraged by Vietnam’s agreement with Trump.
“This should correct the way to continue pragmatic security participation between the US and Vietnam, and hopefully a way for others in Southeast Asia to get similar agreements without giving up too much.” He said.
