Aamir Latif
14 November 2026•Update: 14 November 2026
- Trump to attend special summit Nov.17
The Philippines is set to host the 49th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and related meetings from Nov.15 to 17, bringing together bloc leaders and dialogue partners from across the region and the international community.
The engagements will begin Sunday with an opening ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, followed by plenary and retreat sessions, according to a statement from the Philippine government.
Leaders of the 11-member bloc will meet for three days in the Philippine capital, where they will also hold separate meetings with leaders from the US, China, South Korea, Japan, India and Australia.
The crisis in Myanmar, energy security, critical minerals and great power competition across the wider Asia-Pacific region are likely to dominate the agenda.
The bloc's leaders will also hold meetings with ASEAN parliamentarians, business representatives and youth delegates.
The government has declared Nov. 16 to 18 special non-working days in Metro Manila to ease traffic congestion and ensure security for visiting delegates.
Who is attending
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr will chair the summit, themed “Navigating Our Future, Together.”
The summit will bring together representatives of the ASEAN member states: Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will attend as guests of the chair.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has also confirmed his participation, while Russia will be represented by its top diplomat Sergey Lavrov. New Zealand will send its deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters to the summit.
Myanmar will be represented by the director-general of the ASEAN Affairs Department of its Foreign Ministry.
ASEAN has kept Myanmar's leaders out of its summits since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in 2021.
The leaders of Brazil and Canada, as well as the IMF managing director, will also address the Plenary Summit.
The summit is also expected to discuss the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, the world's first binding region-wide deal on the digital economy.
Plus One summits
The related meetings, known as the Plus One Summits, will begin Monday and continue through Tuesday.
The meetings will provide an opportunity to reaffirm existing partnerships and advance cooperation on shared regional and global priorities with ASEAN's dialogue partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, the US and the UN.
On Tuesday, Marcos will also convene the 29th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and the 21st East Asia Summit (EAS), the premier leaders-led forum for dialogue and cooperation on strategic, political and economic issues of common concern and interest in the region.
Marcos Jr will also lead the closing ceremony and the handover of the ASEAN chairship to Singapore.
The day will culminate with the ASEAN-US Special Summit to be attended by Trump.
Trump, who last visited the Philippines in 2017 for the ASEAN summit in Manila during his first term, is scheduled to travel to China afterward for the APEC Summit in Shenzhen.
