ASEAN Leaders Head Home After Three-day Summit

By Muhammad Adil Muzaffar Mohd Fisol & Mohd Ashraf Syafiq Mazlan

SEPANG, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- ASEAN leaders and their delegation have departed for home following the conclusion of the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Kuala Lumpur.

Among those who left were Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

All the leaders were accorded a red carpet ceremonial send-off at the Bunga Raya Complex, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), which included a guard of honour mounted by 28 officers and personnel from the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment.

Manet departed at 5.35 pm aboard a special aircraft and was sent off by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming then bade farewell to the Singaporean Prime Minister, who boarded a commercial flight from KLIA Terminal 1 at 8.30 pm.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister left at 8.30 pm and was sent off by Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh.

Meanwhile, Marcos and his delegation departed from the Bunga Raya Complex at 11 pm.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said bid farewell to the delegation from the Philippines, which will assume the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2026.

Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta is scheduled to depart later tonight, with his flight set to take off at 1.30 am.

The three-day regional meeting was held under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship 2025, themed “Inclusivity and Sustainability”.

Two landmark achievements have defined Malaysia’s chairmanship so far, namely the admission of Timor-Leste as ASEAN’s 11th member state and the signing of the KL Peace Accord between Cambodia and Thailand.

This is the fifth time Malaysia has assumed the ASEAN Chair since the bloc’s inception in 1967, having previously chaired in 1977, 1997, 2005 and 2015.

-- BERNAMA