The highlights this week: ASEAN’s summit makes Kuala Lumpur a geopolitical hub, Laos considers cutting power to crypto miners , a royal baby is announced in Brunei, and scam gangs’ state ties are exposed in Cambodia.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: ASEAN’s summit makes Kuala Lumpur a geopolitical hub, Laos considers cutting power to crypto miners, a royal baby is announced in Brunei, and scam gangs’ state ties are exposed in Cambodia.

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The World Comes to ASEAN

This year’s summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) runs this Sunday, Oct. 26, through Tuesday. The U.S.-China trade war will be the main item on the agenda, with an expected bilateral discussion of rare earths occuring on the sidelines.

ASEAN has its own priorities too, including the admission of a new member, Timor-Leste.

An unusually prominent lineup of expected guests includes U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

World leaders seem to like that the bloc tends to be resolutely impartial in geopolitics, and they are also keen to cultivate friendships in a region central to the global economy.

Still, the most consequential meeting may not be between leaders but, rather, a planned discussion between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The pair will discuss China’s sweeping restrictions on exports of rare earths and products using them. Trump has responded by threatening new 100 percent tariffs on China as well as controls on exports of software to China.

Bessent and He will also set the tone for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump has suggested that this will take place at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, which will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1.