Nothing To Shout About Trump S Kl Stopover Is A Matter Of Calendar Not Diplomatic Calibre

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WHEN US president Donald Trump flew into Malaysia on Sunday, Government leaders made it out as though Putrajaya is now the new Geneva. True, Trump’s visit makes headlines, but it is by no means a global endorsement of Malaysia’s diplomatic stature, like how many leaders in the Madani administration frame it.
It just boils down to the timing of the ASEAN chairmanship. Let’s be honest. World leaders turn up wherever the year’s schedule dictates. This year, Malaysia happened to chair ASEAN, the regional grouping which meets annually.
By convention, each of the 10 member nations (now 11 with the inclusion of East Timor) takes turns to chair the grouping and host its annual summit.
Had Myanmar been the chair this year, there is a chance that Trump would have flown to Naypyidaw, not Kuala Lumpur. Let’s not mistake rotational chairmanship for diplomatic prestige.
As host, Malaysia again happened to be very much in the global spotlight, thanks to a mix of tariff tensions, the Thailand-Cambodia dispute and the usual American interest in Southeast Asia. Trump’s presence is a matter of course, not a recognition of Malaysia’s foreign-policy finesse.
Contrast that with Singapore in 2018, when it hosted the historic Trump-Kim Jong Un summit. Singapore was trusted by both Washington and Pyongyang. The Capella Hotel became the world’s stage precisely because the island republic had spent decades cultivating neutrality, efficiency and credibility. It was diplomacy by design, not by duty.
Look elsewhere in Asia and you will see that prestige gatherings happen everywhere. Hanoi hosted the second Trump-Kim summit in 2019. Beijing brokered the Iran-Saudi reconciliation in 2023. Doha saw the United States and Taliban sign an agreement in 2020.
While Malaysia should certainly take pride in running a smooth ASEAN summit, let’s not confuse event management with global influence.
Hosting a convoy of motorcades and making sure the escalators and teleprompters work does not mean Putrajaya suddenly sits at the centre of the diplomatic universe.
So yes, Trump was here. But once the dust settles, Malaysia will go back to what it always was: an important ASEAN member.
At most, it is a vocal champion of the plight of the people in Gaza. But the fact that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim did not get invited to the Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt earlier this month (although his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto did), is testament of Malaysia’s diplomatic prowess, or lack of.
Gone are the days when Malaysia reverberated within global diplomatic circles, largely due to the immense influence and stature of ex-premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Government leaders should snap out of diplomatic illusion and stop conflating being on the map due to a matter of the calendar, with actual diplomatic calibre. ‒  Focus Malaysia

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