Brazilian president is in Malaysia to strengthen strategic partnerships with Southeast Asian countries
Economic rapprochement with Southeast Asia is one of the topics that the president has on his agenda when participating in the (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), held from this Sunday (Oct 26, 2025) until Tuesday (Oct 28) in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).
“Asean is today Brazil’s 5th main trading partner, the 4th destination for our exports and the group that accounted for more than 20% of the Brazilian foreign trade surplus, with a favorable balance of around US$ 15.5 billion”, said Ambassador Everton Lucero, director of the India, South and Southeast Asia department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when talking about Lula’s trip to Indonesia and Malaysia.
The bloc imported US$26.3 billion of Brazilian goods in 2024, according to . The main products purchased are mineral fuels, feed and ores. Brazil, in turn, imported US$10.8 billion from Asean – in other words, there is a trade surplus.
Asean is a bloc of 10 Southeast Asian countries. They are:
- Brunei;
- Cambodia;
- Singapore;
- Filipinas;
- Indonesia;
- Laos;
- Malaysia;
- Myanmar;
- Thailand;
- Vietnam.
The nations together have around 692 million inhabitants, according to the IMF (International Monetary Fund). This represents 8.6% of the world population. They have a nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of around US$4 trillion – for comparison, Brazil’s is .
In 2018, the total exported by Brazil to Asean represented 4.5% of total Brazilian exports.
In 2024, this percentage rose to 7.8%.
The volume imported from Asean by Brazil has fluctuated over the years. In 2018, 4.3% of all Brazilian imports were from the Asian bloc.
This percentage reached 4.8% in 2019 and fell to 3.7% in 2022. It rose again after Lula assumed the Presidency in 2023. In 2024, it was 4.1%.
LULA NA ASEAN
The PT member wants to strengthen strategic partnerships with Southeast Asian countries and expand Brazil’s presence in the region. Before Malaysia, he went to Indonesia, where he visited the Asean headquarters in Jakarta.
Lula’s visit to Kuala Lumpur has, according to Planalto, the objective of intensifying and diversifying bilateral trade and investments. The focus is on strategic sectors such as energy, science, technology and innovation.
Ambassador Everton Lucero said that there are 3 main axes that Lula seeks to cover with his trip to Malaysia:
- expand and diversify bilateral trade and investments;
- develop cooperation in strategic sectors for the development of regions;
- take advantage of political synergy between leaders to achieve greater convergence in international positions, especially on issues related to Asean.
Lula will participate on Sunday (Oct 26) in the 47th Asean Summit, which brings together business and government leaders from the bloc’s member countries. Afterwards, he goes to the Brazil-Malaysia Bilateral Forum, aimed at direct rapprochement between the private sectors of the 2 countries.
The president leaves on Sunday for bilateral meetings during his trip to Malaysia. He should meet with the President of the United States, Donald Trump (Republican Party), in the late afternoon, local time, and early morning, Brasília time. The rapprochement between the 2 presidents began in September at the UN General Assembly, when they greeted each other and Trump said he liked Lula. The North American said there was a “excellent chemistry” between them.
On October 6th, the 2 presidents on the phone for about 30 minutes. At the time, Palácio do Planalto said the tone was friendly. The PT member highlighted that Brazil is one of the countries with which the USA maintains a trade surplus and requested the withdrawal of the policy applied to imported Brazilian products and against Brazilian authorities.
During the negotiations, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira spent about 1 hour with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on October 16 in Washington. After the meeting, the Brazilian chancellor told journalists that the meeting had been “very productive”.
Now, Lula and Trump are in Malaysia and the meeting should be held during the Asean summit. On Saturday, Trump told journalists aboard Air Force 1, his official plane, that he believed he would meet the Brazilian. Afterwards, a journalist asks the Republican if he is willing to reduce tariffs on Brazilian products. The North American signaled yes, as long as it is “under the right circumstances”.
The approach marks a turnaround in Trump’s stance, which in July on Brazilian products and conditioned the normalization of relations on the suspension of Bolsonaro’s trial at the STF (Supreme Federal Court). The trial was not suspended and Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison by the 1st Panel of the Court for attempted coup d’état.
Read more:
