ASEAN Foreign Ministers Open Manila Meetings as Energy Crisis and Regional Conflicts Test Unity
Southeast Asian foreign ministers began meetings in Manila on Saturday, November 14, as the regional bloc sought a coordinated response to surging energy costs, security tensions and an approaching El Niño, challenges Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said demand collective action.
The meetings open a weekend of diplomacy culminating in the November 15 to 17 ASEAN summit, where ASEAN leaders will hold talks with counterparts from major powers including the United States and Japan, and discuss wide-ranging issues from the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict, Myanmar and the South China Sea to transboundary pollution.
The gathering comes as the Philippines and other import-dependent Southeast Asian economies grapple with higher fuel costs, which have squeezed households and businesses and added to inflation pressures.
Myanmar will also test ASEAN's ability to maintain a common position on the crisis that has engulfed the country since the military seized power in 2021. Leaders are expected to review the implementation of the bloc's Five-Point Consensus, its main framework for addressing the crisis, Philippine foreign ministry spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial said at a press conference on Friday.
The South China Sea will feature in discussions, with negotiations on a long-delayed Code of Conduct about 70 percent complete, Imperial said.
Myanmar will also feature in protests planned during the summit, with activists demanding that ASEAN maintain its exclusion of Myanmar's military leadership from leaders' meetings. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted the elected government in a 2021 coup, triggering a civil war that the United Nations estimates has killed 100,000 people and displaced more than 3.5 million.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：东盟遗产大楼内的一间会议室。来源：Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, Kementerian Perdagangan Republik Indonesia，维基共享资源。 / Photo: A meeting room inside the ASEAN Heritage building. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, Kementerian Perdagangan Republik Indonesia, via Wikimedia Commons.
