{"id":2242,"date":"2025-07-07T19:43:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/rubio-to-make-first-visit-to-indo-pacific-region-for-asean-meeting\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T19:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:43:20","slug":"rubio-to-make-first-visit-to-indo-pacific-region-for-asean-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/rubio-to-make-first-visit-to-indo-pacific-region-for-asean-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio to make first visit to Indo-Pacific region for ASEAN meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>\n\tWASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Malaysia later this week to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian Nations in his first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as America&rsquo;s top diplomat, the State Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRubio will travel July 8-12 and will take part in meetings in Kuala Lumpur with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose ministers are gathering there, the State Department said.<br>Rubio will seek to firm up US relationships with partners and allies in the region, who have been unnerved by President Donald Trump&rsquo;s global tariff offensive.<br>The trip is part of a renewed US focus on the Indo-Pacific and represents an effort by the Trump administration to look beyond the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have so far consumed much of its attention.<br>Last week, Rubio hosted counterparts from Australia, India and Japan and announced a joint initiative to ensure supply of critical minerals, a vital sector for high-tech applications dominated by Washington&rsquo;s main strategic rival China.<br>Trump also announced he reached a trade agreement with important Southeast Asian partner and ASEAN member Vietnam and could reach one with India, but cast doubt on a possible deal with Japan, Washington&rsquo;s main Indo-Pacific ally and a major importer and investor in the United States.<br>Rubio has yet to visit Japan, or neighboring South Korea, the other major US ally in Northeast Asia, since taking office in January, even though Washington sees the Indo-Pacific as its main strategic priority given the perceived threat posed by China.<br>ASEAN countries have been nervous about Trump&rsquo;s tariff offensive and have questioned the willingness of his &ldquo;America First&rdquo; administration to fully engage diplomatically and economically with the region.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&ldquo;There is a hunger to be reassured that the US actually views the Indo-Pacific as the primary theater of US interests, key to US national security,&rdquo; said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at Washington&rsquo;s Center for Strategic and International Studies.<br>Other ASEAN countries may be encouraged by Vietnam&rsquo;s deal with Trump. &ldquo;This should smooth the way for continued pragmatic security engagement between the US and Vietnam, and hopefully provide a pathway for others in Southeast Asia to get similar deals without having to give up much,&rdquo; Poling said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                       <!-- \n                        \n\n<div id=\"POSTQUARE_WIDGET_122392\"><\/div>\n\n --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><sub>Rubio to make first visit to Indo-Pacific region for ASEAN meeting<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Malaysia later this week to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian Nations in his first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as America&rsquo;s top diplomat, the State Department said in a statement. Rubio will travel July 8-12 and will take part in meetings in Kuala Lumpur with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/rubio-to-make-first-visit-to-indo-pacific-region-for-asean-meeting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Rubio to make first visit to Indo-Pacific region for ASEAN meeting&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}