By Jonathan Head, South East Asia correspondent
The US president appears interested in one thing only during his visit to Malaysia: playing the starring role in a ceremony arranged specially for him, at which Thailand and Cambodia will sign some kind of peace accord.
Differences between the two countries over their border remain unresolved, but, under pressure to come up with something, they have made progress in agreeing to demilitarise the border.
Neither can afford to disappoint President Trump. Back in July, when they were still bombing and shelling each other, his threat to end tariff talks forced them into an immediate ceasefire.
Other Asean member states will hope for Trump’s mere presence, brief though it is, to normalise relations with the US.
They have had a tumultuous year in which their export-dependent economies were badly shaken by his tariff war. Exports from the region to the US have doubled since Trump’s last visit to the Asean summit in 2017.
Once Trump leaves, the other leaders can settle down to normal business – the quiet, incremental diplomacy which advances the plodding progress of integration among them.
Also on the agenda is a conflict that doesn’t have Trump’s attention – the civil war in Myanmar, which has haunted every Asean gathering since it was triggered by a brutal coup in 2021.