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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will be given a diplomatic coup when US President Donald Trump travels to Malaysia for Southeast Asia’s headline summit this weekend.

Malaysia, a 35 million-person multiracial state sandwiched between Thailand and Singapore, has a policy of not taking sides in conflicts between great powers for decades. US presidents are only occasionally there.

Following visits by former US Presidents Barack Obama and Lyndon B. Johnson, Trump is only the third US leader to travel to the Southeast Asian nation. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is holding a Sunday-to-Tuesday summit there.

Trump, whose disdain for multilateralism is well known, will be present for the Southeast Asian nations for the second time after skipping the ASEAN summits in 2018 and 2019.

A number of prominent non-ASEAN nations’ leaders, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, will attend the US president’s meeting.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping, who Trump is scheduled to meet with in South Korea at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next week, have chosen not to attend.

Trump’s visit is, in many ways, a representation of the delicate balance Malaysia’s government has attempted to maintain as it navigates the strain of the contentious conflict between the US and China.

Malaysia’s economies are deeply linked to both the US and China’s economies.

In 2024, the US was the Southeast Asian nation’s top foreign investor and third-largest trading partner due to its large presence in Malaysia’s tech and oil industries.

The same year, China, a major buyer of palm oil and electronics from Malaysia, took the top spot in both trade and investment.

Malaysia’s attempts to walk a fine line between Beijing and Washington have become increasingly problematic as regional hotspots like Taiwan and the South China Sea are being squabbling with each other.

According to Thomas Daniel, an analyst at the Institute of Strategic &amp, International Studies in Kuala Lumpur, “Malaysia wants to productively engage both China and the US on a variety of issues.”

Daniel told Al Jazeera, “It is in our interests.”

Anwar sees Trump’s visit as a chance to boost regional peace and stability, strengthen economic ties, and strengthen ASEAN’s standing on the global stage.

Anwar and Trump have both pledged to constructively raise issues of disagreement between Washington and Kuala Lumpur, particularly the Palestinian cause, using the rare occasion for face time&nbsp.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a professor at the University of Malaya, stated on Al Jazeera that the key to autonomy is to avoid entanglement, maximize options, and benefit from both poles without acting as anyone’s proxy.

Trump’s visit is expected to feature high-level items on the agenda, including China’s proposed export controls on rare earths, and US tariffs on Malaysia, which are currently set at 19 percent.

According to Mohd Ramlan Mohd Arshad, a senior lecturer at the MARA University of Technology in Shah Alam, close to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia prioritizes preserving “rules-based” trade, which promotes economic growth despite political differences.

The “worst” thing that could happen to Malaysia is a protracted US-China economic cold war, according to Arshad, according to Arshad.

Trump, who hasn’t made a secret of his plans to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is also expected to sign a peace agreement with Thailand and Cambodia, which engaged in a brief border conflict in July that resulted in at least 38 fatalities.

The balancing act also involves political considerations at home for Anwar, who has led a multiracial coalition of parties with divergent and competing interests since 2022.

In Malaysia with a Muslim majority, where the plight of Palestinians has frequently sparked public protests, the US has long been at odds with its support of Israel’s occupation of Gaza.

In the weeks leading up to the summit, critics have demanded that Anwar decline Trump’s invitation because of his support for the war, which a UN commission of inquiry last month declared to be genocide.

In a video message sent last month, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar’s former mentor-turned-nemesis, said that “a person like Trump, no matter how powerful, should not be welcomed in Malaysia.”

Anwar has defended the invitation and emphasized that diplomacy is “practical work” for “advancing his country’s interests in an imperfect world.”

He stated at a conference earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur that “it demands balance, discipline, and the courage to stay the course even when the ground shifts beneath us.”

According to Sharifah Munirah Alatas, an independent scholar and researcher who previously taught international relations at the National University of Malaysia, Malaysia has always put pragmatism at the center of its foreign policy.

Alatas told Al Jazeera, “Anwar and Malaysia cannot afford to do otherwise.”

And ASEAN will continue to be actively non-aligned, without taking sides, given the current, wildly unpredictable, Sino-American tension created by Trump 2.0.

The real test of the summit’s success will be tangible outcomes on issues like the Thailand-Cambodia conflict and trade, according to Awang Azman, a professor at the University of Malaya.

Awang Azman remarked, “It’s not just a photo op if a ceasefire agreement and concrete trade language appear on paper.”

President Donald Trump had threatened to send American military personnel to San Francisco, California, for weeks.

Trump, however, abruptly changed his mind on Thursday, saying he would not advance further with a “surge” of troops toward the Democratic stronghold, at least for the time being.

On his online platform Truth Social, Trump wrote that the Federal Government was “surge” San Francisco, California, on Saturday after friends in the area called last night to ask him not to proceed with the surge.

The Republican leader said that the two tech titans, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff, had persuaded him to change his mind.

Trump continued, adding that he had spoken with Democratic Party candidate Daniel Lurie, the mayor of San Francisco. The president made the conceit that Thursday’s decision might not be his final word on the subject when they reacted to their request, though.

Trump criticized Lurie in his post, saying, “He very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn things around.”

Because we can move much more quickly and remove criminals than the Law allows him to remove, I told him, “I think he is making a mistake.” Let’s see how you do, I told him, “It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer.”

“Cruel, un-American tactics”

Trump has spearheaded a campaign of mass deportations that has sparked protests and concerns about human rights violations since taking office in January for a second term.

Trump has responded to those protests by sending National Guard troops to major cities with the ostensible goal of defending federal immigration agents.

However, critics have repeatedly warned against the military deployments, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, because they increase tensions and violate the law.

Among those critics was Lurie, one of the Levi Strauss jeans company’s heirs.

The mayor called on San Francisco’s citizens to stand united at a press conference on Wednesday as the city prepared for a planned deployment.

This federal administration has already used unjustified, cruel tactics against immigrant neighborhoods in our city. We will protest if we see these tactics being used again or escalated,” Lurie remarked.

He argued that local law enforcement would not assist the government in carrying out immigration raids.

San Francisco and I will never stand by while our neighbors are being targeted, Lurie continued.

California’s state government had earlier earlier in the week forewarned that it would file a lawsuit as soon as federalized National Guard troops arrived in San Francisco.

According to the article, the Posse Comitatus Act expressly forbids federal troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement unless requested by the state.

Governor Newsom, who is regarded as a front-runner for the next presidential election, compared Trump’s actions to those of a “wannabe tyrant,” in a statement.

The idea that the federal government can send troops into our cities without providing any evidence that it has any basis in reality, without oversight, no accountability, or no respect for state sovereignty, is an attack on the rule of law, Newsom said.

series of crackdowns

Despite the protests of states like California and Illinois, Trump has continued with the National Guard’s deployments, causing a wave of lawsuits.

California is still fighting Trump’s decision to send troops to Los Angeles in June, a city that was rife with protests and outrage over immigration raids at workplaces, shopping centers, and parks.

The streets were covered in demonstrations, the majority of which were peaceful. Trump sent as many as 4, 000 members of the California National Guard to the city as a result of Newsom’s opposition, but he still accused protesters of being violent.

The Trump administration cited passages from the US Code as justification, despite Newsom’s claim that the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act.

If there is a threat of invasion or rebellion, or if the federal government is unable to enforce its laws in another way, the US Code permits federalization of state National Guard troops.

Despite the opposition from local leaders, the Trump administration has continued to send National Guard troops to other Democratic-led jurisdictions despite the protests’ largely subsided.

For instance, earlier this month, Trump authorized the National Guard to visit Chicago, Illinois, which led to a lawsuit from that state.

The president also made the announcement on Truth Social that troops would be stationed in Portland, Oregon, a move that an emergency court petition blocked.

Meanwhile, Trump has praised the advantages of military deployments to Memphis, Tennessee and Washington, DC, arguing that both cities saw a drop in crime as a result.

San Francisco is a teetering subject.

San Francisco has long been a punching bag for Trump and other Republicans because it has a long history of being a left-wing bastion.

The president criticized the city’s Democratic leadership even while on the campaign trail, blaming it for “destruction” in San Francisco.

Trump has since criticized the city as the subject of his upcoming immigration and crime crackdown.

Trump stated to Fox News on October 19 that “we’re going to go to San Francisco.” “One of the greatest cities in the world was San Francisco,” he declared. Then, fifteen years ago, something went wrong. It woke up.

One of Trump’s supporters, Marc Benioff, shared his opinion of Trump’s decision to change course on Thursday.

San Francisco is home to the billionaire’s software company, Salesforce, and Benioff annually holds a weekend-long tech conference there.

Benioff, however, told The New York Times that he would welcome the National Guard in San Francisco, a response to Republican demands to “clean” the city on the eve of the event this year.

If someone can be cops, I’m all for it, Benioff said. “We don’t have enough cops.

Comedians scheduled to perform at his annual conference dropped out of the conversation after those comments were immediately met with immediate backlash from city officials. Benioff apologized on social media a few days later.

Benioff cited his conversations with locals as evidence that “the National Guard is not needed to address safety in San Francisco.”

I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused, and I apologize for my earlier comment, which was based on the event’s abundance of caution.

Benioff was one of the advisers Trump cited as having an impact on his decision to withdraw from his feared deployment on Thursday.

Protests had already erupted outside the San Francisco Bay Area’s US Coast Guard facility in Alameda.

Mayor Lurie, in response to the city’s efforts to reduce accidental overdoses, said he would welcome “continued partnerships” with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Lurie continued, adding that the invitation did not include military participation.