When the group Chair of ASEAN and related summits faces a global foray: How Italy, France, and Brazil advance Malaysia’s strategic relevance

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s visits to Italy, France, and Brazil this July come at a critical juncture not only for Malaysia’s foreign policy but also for ASEAN’s global profile as it approaches the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur from July 9 to 11 2025.

Each of these destinations—Rome, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro—represents a calculated choice to position Malaysia at the confluence of established and emerging power centres.

Anwar’s foreign visits, far from symbolic, are tightly linked to economic renewal, institutional partnerships, and strategic convenorship in an era of polycrisis and multipolarity.

In this global foray, Malaysia’s diplomatic trajectory finds an unexpected but meaningful resonance with Türkiye—a fellow pivotal power straddling East and West.

Over the past decade, Türkiye has significantly deepened its relationships with Italy, France, and Brazil—three countries that now sit at the heart of Anwar Ibrahim’s July itinerary which offer a strategic parallel that highlights how emerging economies can diversify their global footprints while navigating between traditional powers and new poles of influence.

Where Türkiye has made inroads, Malaysia now charts its own course, guided by ASEAN values and a multilateralist outlook.

Italy may not always command headlines in Malaysian diplomatic dispatches, but Rome is a gateway to Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the broader Eurozone.

As one of Malaysia’s significant European partners—with a bilateral trade volume crossing RM14.6 billion—Italy hosts a sophisticated ecosystem of engineering, design, and sustainable manufacturing.

It is no coincidence that Malaysian giants like Petronas, Khazanah, and Sunway are included in the delegation.

Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in precision tools, automotive, and renewable technologies, are looking to expand eastward. Malaysia, located at the maritime crossroad between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, offers precisely that gateway.

Equally important is Italy’s cultural and civilizational relevance. As a country steeped in interfaith and intercultural diplomacy—especially under the papal authority of the Vatican—Rome provides an opportunity for Malaysia, a majority-Muslim nation with its own Islamic diplomatic capital in Kuala Lumpur, to engage in bridge-building dialogue with both the West and the EU core.

A comparative insight comes from Türkiye’s own deepening relations with Italy. In April 2025, Ankara and Rome convened their fourth Intergovernmental Summit, resulting in 11 new agreements ranging from defence cooperation and green transition technologies to joint aerospace research. Italian firms have increasingly found Türkiye a natural hub for Mediterranean trade and energy routes, with bilateral trade exceeding USD30 billion.

These developments illustrate how middle powers like Türkiye—and now Malaysia—are finding new relevance in Italy’s strategic geography and industrial know-how.

France is more than the land of liberty and baguettes. As a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council and a strategic player in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans, France is a dormant but potent Indo-Pacific power.

With over a million square kilometres of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Indo-Pacific—thanks to its overseas territories like New Caledonia and French Polynesia—France sees itself as much an Asian-Pacific actor as it is European.

Prime Minister Anwar’s scheduled engagements in Paris, signal a deeper push into science diplomacy, technological R&D, and soft power engagement.

In an age of AI, green transition, and digital transformation, Malaysia cannot afford to lag.

Collaborations in sustainable energy, cybersecurity, and education—particularly between French universities and Malaysian institutions—will deepen bilateral ties beyond conventional trade diplomacy.

Moreover, a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between France and ASEAN—following similar arrangements with China, India, the UK and the US, Japan and South Korea—is overdue.

France, despite being a Development Partner of ASEAN, is the only permanent UNSC member yet to attain such status.

Anwar’s visit is an inflection point, providing the momentum for France to cement its long-term relevance in Southeast Asia through a deeper ASEAN commitment.

Türkiye’s own experience with France is instructive. Despite periods of political coolness, both countries maintain dynamic economic, educational, and cultural ties. French companies like Renault, Total, and Airbus have long-standing partnerships with Turkish industries, while Francophone institutions in Türkiye—including Galatasaray University—foster deep academic linkages.

This multidimensional relationship underscores how states with distinct civilizational roots can construct long-lasting engagements through strategic patience and sectoral alignment—something Malaysia may well emulate.

Brazil—Latin America’s largest economy and a founding member of BRICS—offers an entirely different strategic canvas.

With Anwar attending the 17th BRICS Summit as part of Malaysia’s new status as a BRICS “Partner Country,” the visit underscores Malaysia’s growing comfort operating in multiple strategic theatres.

BRICS, often cast as an alternative pole to the G7, represents a shift in global economic governance.

Anwar’s participation—amid Petronas, Maybank, and Sunway executives—projects Malaysia as a pragmatic actor willing to engage across ideological lines.

Brazil’s importance to Malaysia lies not only in South-South diplomacy but also in its complementary strengths in agriculture, biodiversity, and green finance.

With the Amazon rainforest and Malaysia’s tropical rainforests facing similar ecological challenges, partnerships on carbon trading, deforestation monitoring, and sustainable development will form key discussion points.

Anwar’s Brazilian agenda will also showcase Malaysia’s broader regional chairmanship of ASEAN, linking the bloc with other Global South entities and pushing for digital inclusivity, AI governance, and trade equity. This reaffirms Malaysia’s place as a strategic convenor power—able to speak across divides, not for domination, but for consensus.

Türkiye, too, has quietly expanded its strategic partnership with Brazil over the past two decades.

The 2010 Action Plan signed between both nations laid the groundwork for technical cooperation, military dialogue, and innovation-led trade. Bilateral trade has steadily increased, surpassing USD5 billion, while Türkiye’s technological exporters—especially in UAVs, defence electronics, and sustainable materials—are finding receptive partners in Brazil’s growing industrial sector.

The Türkiye-Brazil axis reflects the same multipolar spirit that Malaysia now seeks to embrace, particularly as BRICS evolves into a more inclusive platform for Global South leadership.

Taken together, the Rome–Paris–Rio tour is a tapestry of multidimensional diplomacy. Italy and France are mature economies with rich legacies in trade, culture, and international law. Brazil represents the rise of non-Western actors asserting themselves in global debates.

Anwar Ibrahim’s decision to visit all three in one arc reflects Malaysia’s foreign policy maturity: a pivotal power aware of its strategic geography, cultural richness, and convening potential in a fragmented world.

Türkiye’s growing bilateral engagements with these same states—Italy, France, and Brazil—are not coincidental. Rather, they serve as strategic mirrors to Malaysia’s own diplomatic aspirations.

Both Malaysia and Türkiye occupy pivotal corridors between the East and West, both blend Islamic identity with pragmatic multilateralism, and both recognise that in a multipolar era, consensus-building is a currency of influence.

Where Türkiye has already laid groundwork—be it through green technology with Italy, Francophone higher education, or strategic dialogue with BRICS nations—Malaysia is entering with a vision shaped by ASEAN priorities and national resilience.

In a world increasingly riven by great power competition, Anwar is signalling something subtler but no less vital: that Malaysia, and by extension ASEAN, can be a bridge—between G7 and BRICS, between Christian and Muslim civilizations, and between emerging technological ecosystems and mature innovation hubs.

And perhaps, in a time when the world is desperately seeking equilibrium, it is not domination but dialogue—rooted in principle and pursued with realism—that will matter most.

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Phar Kim Beng is Professor of ASEAN Studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia and a former Head Teaching Fellow at Harvard University.