ASEAN Summit 2026 | Dates, Venue, Leaders, Member Countries, Schedule, Agenda & Key Facts

The 49th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits will run from November 16 to 18, 2026 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Metro Manila, hosted by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as ASEAN chair for 2026, and it brings together the bloc’s 11 member countries and their dialogue partners. The White House says US President Donald Trump will attend on November 16 before flying to Shenzhen for APEC, while the agenda centers on four goals: the South China Sea Code of Conduct, a maritime studies center, the Digital Economy Framework Agreement and the “silver economy.”

ASEAN Summit 2026 – Introduction

The ASEAN Summit 2026 is the year’s biggest diplomatic event in Southeast Asia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations meets its leaders twice a year, and the chair sets the agenda. In 2026 that chair is the Philippines, which stepped in after Myanmar skipped its alphabetical turn. Manila held the first leaders’ meeting in Cebu in May and now prepares for the second, larger gathering in November.

The stakes have risen. ASEAN added Timor-Leste as its 11th member, rewrote its charter for the first time since 2007, and faces pressure on the South China Sea, Myanmar and Thai-Cambodian tensions. Global powers want a seat at the table, and tariffs hang over the region’s exports. This report covers the dates, venue, member countries, leaders, schedule and agenda, one data table at a time.

Interesting Facts About the ASEAN Summit 2026

ANNOUNCED START DATE OF THE 49TH ASEAN SUMMIT
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January 2026 announcement   ██████████          November 10
July 2026 ASEAN calendar    █████████████       November 13
Final schedule              ████████████████    November 16
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Source: Philippine News Agency; Manila Times; Philstar; BusinessMirror; ASEAN Secretariat public calendar, January-October 2026.

The first four rows set the schedule. The 49th summit moved twice before settling on November 16-18, after earlier announcements pointed to November 10-12 and then November 13-15. It sits at the Philippine International Convention Center, which marked its 50th anniversary on September 5. The 48th summit ran May 6-8 in Cebu, so the two meetings give the Philippines a full year in the spotlight as chair under Marcos.

The last four rows show the scale. ASEAN counts 11 members and a combined population above 703 million. The Philippines will host about 650 related meetings this year. Malacañang declared November 16-18 special non-working days in the National Capital Region, with Acting Executive Secretary Ralph Recto signing the order on September 17 to ease traffic and protect delegates.

ASEAN Summit 2026 Dates, Venue and Schedule | Cebu to Manila

ASEAN 2026 CALENDAR, KEY EVENTS (each █ = one event window)
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May 6-8       ████  48th ASEAN Summit, Cebu
June 17-18    ██    Russia-ASEAN special summit, Kazan
July 18-24    ████  59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Manila
Nov 16-18     ███   49th ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit, Manila
Nov 17-19     ███   APEC leaders in Shenzhen, China
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Source: Philippine News Agency; Wikipedia 2026 ASEAN Summits; Philstar; IANS reporting on White House statement, May-October 2026.

The year’s calendar has three peaks. Leaders met in Cebu on May 6-8, and they adopted the Cebu Protocol on May 8, the first amendment to the ASEAN Charter since its signing in 2007, which formalized Timor-Leste’s membership. Russia hosted a special ASEAN summit in Kazan on June 17-18, and Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro chaired the 59th foreign ministers’ meeting on July 18-24, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attending.

November brings the main event. Leaders gather in Metro Manila on November 16-18 for the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit. The White House told the New York Post that Trump will take part on November 16 and then travel to Shenzhen for APEC, which runs November 17-19. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is not expected in Manila, according to the South China Morning Post. The back-to-back schedule makes Manila the first stop in a week of Asia-Pacific diplomacy.

ASEAN Member Countries and Leaders 2026 | The 11 Members at the Table

ASEAN MEMBERSHIP GROWTH (cumulative member states; each █ = 1 member)
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1967 founding      █████         5
1984 Brunei        ██████        6
1995 Vietnam       ███████       7
1997 Laos, Myanmar █████████     9
1999 Cambodia      ██████████   10
2025 Timor-Leste   ███████████  11
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Source: Wikipedia 2026 ASEAN Summits; ASEAN Secretariat; Philippine News Agency, May-October 2026.

The bloc grew from 5 founding members in 1967 to 11 in 2025. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, Cambodia in 1999 and Timor-Leste last year. The 48th summit lineup shows who attends: 10 members sent heads of government or state, including Prabowo, Anwar, Wong and Hun Manet, while Myanmar sent only a senior foreign ministry official.

Myanmar remains the awkward seat. ASEAN held its first meeting with Myanmar since 2021 under the Philippine chair after the junta’s election, and Min Aung Hlaing was chosen president by parliament in April. Aung San Suu Kyi moved to house arrest on May 1. Bangkok pushes for rapprochement, while Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila stay cautious. Whether Myanmar sends a political leader to Manila in November is a question to watch.

ASEAN Summit 2026 Agenda | Four Deliverables and Guest Invitees

WHO IS INVITED TO THE 49TH SUMMIT (each █ = 1)
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ASEAN member states               ███████████   11
Dialogue partners invited         ███████████   11
International institutions listed ████           4
Priority deliverables             ████           4
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Source: Manila Times; BusinessMirror; Wikipedia 2026 ASEAN Summits; IANS, October 2026.

Four deliverables define the Philippine chairship. The Code of Conduct in the South China Sea tops the list, and Malaysia’s foreign minister said it is expected to be finalized at the summit. The Digital Economy Framework Agreement is expected to be signed in Manila. The ASEAN Center on Maritime Studies will sit in Manila, and Marcos says it is not meant to provoke anyone. The fourth goal, the silver economy, targets ageing populations.

The guest list is wide. 11 dialogue partners are invited, and four institutions, the EU, IMF, United Nations and World Bank, appear on the participant list. Listed guest representatives include Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, India’s Narendra Modi, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, Canada’s Mark Carney and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung. Marcos renewed his invitation to Modi, but his attendance is not confirmed. Guest lists can change before the summit opens.

ASEAN Economy 2026 | GDP, Trade and Population Statistics

ASEAN GOODS TRADE IN 2024 (US$ trillion; each █ = US$0.1 trillion)
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Total exports   ████████████████████  1.95
Total imports   ███████████████████   1.89
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Source: ASEANstats, ASEAN Statistical Highlights 2025; ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Key Figures 2024.

ASEAN’s economy reached US$3.9 trillion in nominal terms in 2024. Total trade in goods hit US$3,844.3 billion, split between US$1.95 trillion of exports and US$1.89 trillion of imports. The surplus shrank to US$61.5 billion from US$101.1 billion the year before. Trade inside the bloc made up 21.4% of goods trade, and intra-ASEAN remained the top export destination.

Services carry weight too. ASEAN services exports grew to US$667.9 billion and imports to US$618.5 billion, a surplus of about US$49 billion. Earlier ASEANstats data put the 2023 economy at US$3.8 trillion, the world’s fifth-largest, and the 2023 population at 676.6 million. The Manila Times now cites more than 703 million people as of March 2026. The gap between figures comes from Timor-Leste’s addition and updated estimates. Growth in trade ties to American demand, as the US trading partners statistics report shows with Vietnam’s 40.4% jump in US imports.

ASEAN Investment Statistics 2026 | FDI Inflows and Intra-ASEAN Flows

FDI INFLOWS TO ASEAN (US$ billion; each █ = US$10 billion)
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2023   █████████████████████    208
2024   ███████████████████████  226
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INTRA-ASEAN FDI (US$ billion; each █ = US$2 billion)
2023   ███████████              22
2024   ████████████████         31
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Source: ASEAN Secretariat and UNCTAD, ASEAN Investment Report 2025, October 2025.

Investors kept faith in ASEAN. FDI inflows rose 8% to US$226 billion in 2024 while global flows fell 11%, which kept the bloc at the top of developing regions for 4 straight years. Manufacturing FDI grew nearly 150% to US$44 billion, driven by supply-chain shifts and digital economy projects, and the five largest industries took 87% of inflows.

The bloc also invests in itself. Intra-ASEAN flows jumped 45% to US$31 billion, up from US$22 billion, and reached 14% of the total. That share is still small, and it explains why Manila pushes the Digital Economy Framework Agreement. Faster rules for data, payments and digital trade could widen the share of money that moves between member states instead of arriving from outside the region.

US-ASEAN Trade and the Manila Summit 2026 | Tariffs, Deficit and Trump’s Visit

US-ASEAN GOODS TRADE IN 2025 (US$ billion; each █ = US$25 billion)
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US goods exports to ASEAN     █████                  126.2
US goods imports from ASEAN   ██████████████████     453.6
US goods trade deficit        █████████████          327.4
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative, ASEAN trade summary, 2025 data.

Washington’s trade ties to ASEAN grew fast in 2025. Goods and services trade hit US$686.0 billion, up 20.3%. US goods exports rose only 2.1% to US$126.2 billion, while imports jumped 29.2% to US$453.6 billion. The goods deficit widened 44.0% to US$327.4 billion, partly offset by a services surplus of US$29.8 billion. Trump arrives in Manila on November 16 against that backdrop.

The tariff fight shapes the visit. The Supreme Court struck down emergency tariffs in February and the White House pivoted to other authorities, a shift tracked in the US global tariff statistics report. ASEAN members that gained from supply-chain moves out of China now face the same policy risk. The SCMP says a Trump appearance would reassure Southeast Asian capitals after tariffs and a transactional approach left many doubting Washington’s reliability.

Philippines ASEAN Chair 2026 | Host Facts, Myanmar and Border Tensions

PHILIPPINE HOSTING MILESTONES, 2026
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May 7    ●── Marcos hosts Thai-Cambodian trilateral in Cebu
May 8    ●── Cebu Protocol adopted, first Charter change since 2007
Aug 25   ●── Marcos reopens renovated Coconut Palace
Sep 5    ●── PICC marks 50th anniversary
Sep 17   ●── Proclamation sets Nov 16-18 non-working days
Oct 11   ●── White House confirms Trump for Nov 16
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Source: Philippine News Agency; BusinessMirror; Manila Times; Wikipedia; Migration Policy Institute, 2017-2026.

The Philippines last hosted the summits in November 2017, when Trump also attended the 31st ASEAN Summit and the 12th East Asia Summit. This year Manila prepared with a renovated convention center and the reopened Coconut Palace on August 25. The armed forces lead security. On May 7 Marcos met the Thai and Cambodian prime ministers in Cebu to cool their border dispute, and both sides agreed to confidence-building steps.

Ties between Manila and Washington run through people as well as treaties. About 2.1 million Filipino immigrants live in the United States, a community detailed in the Filipino immigration statistics in the US report. The Philippines also stands at the center of the maritime dispute that the Code of Conduct targets. Beijing and Manila have clashed repeatedly at sea, and the summit’s outcome on that text may set the tone for the region’s next year.

ASEAN Summit 2026 FAQs

When is the ASEAN Summit 2026?

The 49th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits runs November 16-18, 2026. The 48th summit took place May 6-8, 2026 in Cebu.

Where is the ASEAN Summit 2026 being held?

The 49th summit is at the Philippine International Convention Center in Metro Manila. The 48th summit used the Mactan Expo in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

Who is hosting the ASEAN Summit 2026?

The Philippines hosts as ASEAN chair for 2026, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presiding. Myanmar skipped its alphabetical turn.

How many member countries are in ASEAN?

ASEAN has 11 members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

Who is attending the ASEAN Summit 2026?

ASEAN leaders and dialogue partners are invited, and the White House says Trump will attend on November 16. Modi’s attendance is unconfirmed, and Xi is not expected.

What is on the ASEAN Summit 2026 agenda?

Four deliverables: the South China Sea Code of Conduct, the ASEAN Center on Maritime Studies, the Digital Economy Framework Agreement and the silver economy.

What is the ASEAN-China Code of Conduct?

It is a set of rules meant to prevent clashes and manage competing claims in the South China Sea. ASEAN hopes to finalize it at the November summit.

Is Timor-Leste a member of ASEAN?

Yes. Timor-Leste became the 11th member in 2025, and the Cebu Protocol of May 8, 2026 formalized its membership in the ASEAN Charter.

What is the Digital Economy Framework Agreement?

It is an agreement among ASEAN members on digital trade, data and payments. It is expected to be signed in Manila during the summit.

How big is the ASEAN economy?

ASEAN’s nominal GDP was US$3.9 trillion in 2024, and total goods trade reached US$3,844.3 billion.

How many people live in ASEAN?

The Manila Times cites more than 703 million people as of March 2026. ASEAN’s 2023 count for 10 members was 676.6 million.

How much foreign investment does ASEAN attract?

FDI inflows rose 8% to US$226 billion in 2024, according to the ASEAN Investment Report 2025.

Is Metro Manila closing for the ASEAN Summit?

Malacañang declared November 16-18 special non-working days in the National Capital Region to ease traffic and ensure security.

Where will Trump go after Manila?

He travels to Shenzhen, China, for the APEC summit on November 17-19, according to the White House.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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