Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks 

Police guard outside the venue of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Post-Ministerial Conferences, and the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, Manila, yesteday [AP Photo]

Southeast Asia’s top diplomats expressed alarm over renewed hostilities in the Middle East as they gathered yesterday in the Philippine capital for talks with Western and Asian counterparts, including representatives from the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union.

Some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, including the latest fighting in Iran, will be high in the agenda of the annual talks held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Philippines holds the 11-nation regional bloc’s chairmanship this year and is hosting the three-day talks in Manila.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among the attendees. Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, has been invited to attend a Friday ceremony commemorating a 1976 nonaggression treaty of ASEAN but is not a participant in the ASEAN meetings Lavrov and Rubio will attend.

Rubio and Lavrov have not announced any plans to meet each other or Sybiha while they are in Manila.

Iran war is among ASEAN’s top concerns

ASEAN foreign ministers will first meet among themselves on Tuesday to discuss among other main concerns the hostilities between the United States and Iran that have spilled into other countries in the Middle East and sparked fears of a return to a full-blown war. They plan to issue a joint statement expressing alarm over the developments and urge both sides to resume talks, two Southeast Asian diplomats told The Associated Press.

The fighting has again threatened shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where roughly 20% of global oil supplies transited before the war.

Southeast Asia, a bustling region of more than 680 million people, relies heavily on Middle East oil and gas and was severely hit by the global supply and price shocks sparked by the Iran war. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a national energy emergency in March to ensure the availability of fuel, food and other basic goods and prevent hoarding and profiteering.

Washington’s preoccupation with the war in Iran and the diversion of its military firepower to the Middle East has sparked concerns over its focus on Asia-Pacific concerns, including China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea and against Taiwan which the Trump administration has pledged to help deter.

Rubio meeting with ASEAN and Quad envoys

Rubio’s attendance in the ASEAN meetings aimed to renew Washington’s assurances.

“The secretary’s visit advances a clear U.S. priority: a free and open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security and prosperity for the region and for the American people,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said in Washington.

Before departing for Manila, Rubio said a meeting hadn’t been finalized with Wang but that he would “be open” to it. He wouldn’t say whether he would being up President Donald Trump’s accusations of Chinese meddling in the 2020 election. He also said he still anticipates that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit the U.S. in September.

“When you have two big, powerful countries like the United States and China, there are always going to be irritants, there are always be things we don’t agree on,” Rubio said late Sunday in Washington. “But I think it’s incumbent on powerful, important countries like ours to continue to talk and have a relationship — we owe it to each other and to our people and to the world.”

On the ASEAN meetings’ sidelines, Rubio is expected to meet with other members of the Quad bloc, which consists of the US, India, Japan and Australia. It’s regarded as a major component of the American strategy to counter China and has been repeatedly criticized by Beijing as a U.S. scheme to contain its growing influence.

Myanmar’s civil war and the South China Sea are among regional disputes

Aside from external conflicts, the ASEAN foreign ministers have been under pressure to do more to help resolve the conflicts in their own region, primarily the civil war in Myanmar and the disputes in the South China Sea.

Since Myanmar’s army wrested power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, more than 8,100 people have been killed in the fighting in Myanmar and nearly 22,500 remained in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights-monitoring group.

A five-point peace plan issued by ASEAN leaders in 2021 has failed to end the violence, mainly due to non-compliance by its military-backed government, prompting the bloc to ban the country’s leaders from its top-level meetings, including this week’s meetings in Manila.

To break the impasse, ASEAN foreign ministers led by Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro met their Myanmar counterpart for the first time in five years this month in Bangkok, where they renewed calls for an easing of the violence in the war-battered country and renewed efforts to foster dialogue among all warring groups.

Lazaro, as ASEAN’s special envoy, and Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow met high-level representatives of ethnic armed groups from Myanmar the following day in the Thai resort city of Pattaya for consultations. JIM GOMEZ, MANILA, MDT/AP