Fairness over favour: Anwar Ibrahim challenges Europe’s economic, strategic posture

In his keynote address that blended diplomacy with moral clarity at Sorbonne University, Anwar’s remarks was a strong call for economic fairness, urging a shift beyond the enduring structural imbalances that continue to define global partnerships.

“We welcome partners. But we welcome them as equals. Not as condescending collocutors. Not as instruments for containment. Not as cover for anxiety, and not as projections of other people’s fears,” Anwar said.

Framing his message around ASEAN’s rising agency, Anwar called for Europe to accept Southeast Asia as it truly is: complex, diverse, and geopolitically independent.

ASEAN, he emphasized, is not a geopolitical mirror reflecting someone else’s crisis, but a region with its own calculations and forms of restraint.

“Agency in this region is not something to be granted. It is already owned, and exercised with purpose,” he said.

Anwar acknowledged Europe’s right to regulate based on its values, but warned that when those regulations particularly environmental or trade standards unintentionally shut out developing nations, the partnership risks becoming exclusionary.

“Trade must be a bridge, not a barrier.

“Rules and standards do not descend from the heavens. They are shaped by experience, context, and national choices,” Anwar said.

He cautioned against exporting European preferences as universal truths, and instead called for an honest, adaptive dialogue especially in the negotiation of trade agreements and climate-related policies.

“We do not ask for indulgence. We ask only that Europe meet us where we are—not where its models presume we ought to be. What we seek is not favours, but fairness. Not exemption, but equity.”

In perhaps one of the speech’s most critical reflections, Anwar reminded the audience of the not-so-distant legacy of la mission civilisatrice or the “civilising mission” that justified colonialism under the guise of moral duty.

While Europe no longer claims such missions explicitly, Anwar suggested that traces of that mindset linger in the structures of global engagement.

“The terms of engagement between Europe and Southeast Asia are yet to be fully calibrated.

“This is the moment for an open and thoughtful conversation—grounded not in hierarchy, but in mutual respect,” he said.