MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos and US President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit next week, the spokesperson for ASEAN Affairs said yesterday.
“President Trump is coming so there will definitely be a bilateral engagement between President Trump and President Marcos,” Department of Foreign Affairs ASEAN Office Executive Director Dominic Imperial said in an interview on ANC.
Trump is arriving at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 17, half an hour after the summit closing ceremony at 5 p.m., the last leader to arrive for the summit.
The US president is likely to miss the East Asia Summit (EAS), the only leader-led forum at which all key Indo-Pacific partners meet to discuss political, security and economic challenges facing the region and has an important role to play in advancing closer regional cooperation.
The EAS has 19 members: the 11 ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam) along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. Timor-Leste became a member of the EAS following its ASEAN accession on Oct. 26, 2025.