(Nov 16) : Several world leaders converge on the Philippines this week for a regional summit, with many seeking to deepen trade links as a hedge against the rising US protectionism under President Donald Trump.

Canada’s Mark Carney, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Australia’s Anthony Albanese were in attendance Sunday at the kickoff of the three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ summit, with trade and regional security matters the focus of discussions. Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived late Sunday, while India’s Narendra Modi and Japan’s Sanae Takaichi are expected in coming days.

Trump will make an appearance in Manila as well, but only late Tuesday afternoon as the summit is concluding. He’ll be in the country less than 24 hours before flying to Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he’ll participate in a highly anticipated trilateral summit with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The diplomatic push in Manila underscores a broader scramble by middle power countries like Canada, Brazil, Australia and European nations to diversify their trade and defense partnerships. The Trump administration’s heavy tariffs and a prolonged conflict in Iran has strained trade relations and global energy supply chains.

That momentum was visible Sunday as Carney unveiled new trade pacts with the Philippines and the 11-member Asean group. Meanwhile, Carney and Lula signaled deepening ties with each other, pledging millions of dollars to protect tropical forests and planning reciprocal state visits.

Elsewhere on the sidelines, Australia and the Philippines inked a new defense pact to bolster regional security, while French President Emmanuel Macron is set to secure several bilateral agreements, including on trade, during a separate conference in Cambodia over the weekend.

In his address to leaders on Sunday, Lula called for stronger cooperation among countries and respect for multilateralism. In the face of Trump’s high tariffs, “instead of weeping or begging the US government,” Brazil was better off finding new partners to plug any trade gaps, Lula told reporters in Manila.

Top of mind for Southeast Asian nations during Trump’s visit will be addressing anxieties over potential US export controls on chips to choke off supplies to China. The exit of Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy exposed the possible illicit trade of US-restricted chips from Southeast Asian nations. Tighter rules on exports of the chips could slow the AI-fueled economic boom in countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

With the region becoming an increasingly vital hub for data centers and semiconductor manufacturing, the Asean bloc over the weekend signed a landmark Digital Economy Framework Agreement covering among other things, cybersecurity, AI, and cross-border data sharing.

At the previous leaders’ meeting “we discussed how the world has become more contested and unpredictable,” Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told his counterparts on Sunday. “Unfortunately, the situation has continued to remain highly volatile.”

On regional security matters, the South China Sea is a focus area, especially for the Philippines, which has over the years clashed repeatedly with China in waters where they have competing territorial claims. 

Asean leaders said Sunday they reached a “substantial completion of the negotiations” with China on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea and expect to have it completed by next year.