AP — Senior diplomats from Southeast Asian nations will voice concerns over the renewed violence in the Middle East when they gather in Manila on Tuesday (21) for talks with dialogue partners from the West and Asia, including the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union.
The latest fighting involving Iran will be among the key items on the agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) annual meeting, with the Philippines holding the chairmanship of the ten-member bloc this year and hosting the meeting in Manila.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among those attending the meeting, while Ukraine's top diplomat Andrii Sybiha has been invited to take part in a ceremony commemorating ASEAN's 1976 non-aggression treaty on Friday, but will not attend the ASEAN meetings that Lavrov and Rubio are participating in.
Rubio and Lavrov have not announced any plans to meet each other or to meet with Sybiha during their time in Manila.
ASEAN foreign ministers will meet among themselves on Tuesday (21) to discuss a range of key issues, including the conflict between the United States and Iran that has spilled over into other countries in the Middle East and has ignited fears of a full-scale war breaking out again. They plan to issue a joint statement expressing concern over the situation and calling on both sides to return to negotiations, Southeast Asian diplomats told AP.
The fighting has threatened maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that transported approximately 20% of the world's oil before the war.
Southeast Asia, a region of more than 680 million people, relies heavily on oil and gas from the Middle East and has been severely affected by supply disruptions and price volatility caused by the Iran war.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a national energy emergency in March to ensure adequate supplies of fuel, food, and other essential goods, and to prevent hoarding and profiteering.
Washington's preoccupation with the war in Iran and the diversion of military forces and equipment to the Middle East have raised concerns about its prioritization of Asia-Pacific issues, including China's assertive posture in the disputed South China Sea and toward Taiwan, which the Trump administration has pledged to help deter.
Rubio's participation in the ASEAN meeting aims to renew Washington's commitments.
"This Secretary's visit clearly advances key U.S. goals — a free and open Indo-Pacific that will bring safety, security, and prosperity for the region and for the American people," said State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott.
Beyond external conflicts, ASEAN foreign ministers are also under pressure to do more to help resolve disputes within their own region, particularly the civil war in Myanmar and disputes in the South China Sea.
Since Myanmar's military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in 2021, more than 8,100 people have been killed in fighting in Myanmar and nearly 22,500 remain detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights monitoring group.
The five-point peace plan issued by ASEAN leaders in 2021 has failed to end the violence, largely because the military-backed government has not complied with it, prompting ASEAN to ban the country's leaders from attending the bloc's high-level meetings, including this week's meeting in Manila.
In an effort to break the deadlock, ASEAN foreign ministers, led by Philippine Foreign Minister Teresita Lazaro, met with Myanmar's foreign minister for the first time in five years in Bangkok this month, where they again called for a reduction in violence and sought to promote dialogue among all warring factions.
In addition, Lazaro, in her capacity as ASEAN Special Envoy, and Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkaew also met with senior representatives of ethnic armed groups from Myanmar on the following day in Pattaya.
However, human rights groups have criticized the move by ASEAN ministers to hold talks with Myanmar's senior diplomat, saying it amounts to abandoning the bloc's ban on engagement with high-level officials of the country and rewards Myanmar's generals without compelling them to make any concessions in return.
"It is not and should not be misinterpreted as abandoning the Five-Point Consensus. The path to peace can only be achieved through resolute diplomacy with all parties involved in the conflict," Lazaro said, referring to the peace plan.
ASEAN foreign ministers will also meet with Wang Yi to discuss the status of negotiations between China and the regional bloc on a proposed agreement known as a "Code of Conduct," which aims to prevent disputes in the South China Sea from escalating out of control.
The maritime territorial disputes involve China, Taiwan, and the ASEAN members of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, but confrontations in the disputed waters have intensified particularly between the coast guard and naval forces of China and the Philippines in recent years.
