MANILA, July 23 — Top diplomats from Asia, Europe and North America meet here today for the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum, where ministers are expected to call for a peaceful settlement of renewed and intensifying hostilities in West Asia.
The war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz are set to dominate the meetings attended by US State Secretary Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and top officials from Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, India, Japan, and others.
The conflict is a key concern for the 11-nation ASEAN, which has a combined gross domestic product of about US$3.8 trillion (RM15.5 trillion) heavily reliant on West Asian oil, exposing it to fallout that has stoked global inflation.
“We convene against the backdrop of profound geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainty,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro, representing the Philippines as ASEAN chair, said in opening remarks.
“These issues transcend borders and underscore the reality that no nation can address today’s complex security environment alone.”
The US military completed a 12th successive night of attacks on Iran yesterday, with Iranian-aligned Houthis claiming hits the following day on two Saudi oil tankers, in a blockade that threatens a second chokehold on global oil supplies in the Red Sea, alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
The world has entered a “new period of turbulence and transformation”, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying told a meeting of officials from ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea today, warning of an urgent need for peace and stability.
A day earlier Rubio said the United States wanted a diplomatic solution in West Asia, but Tehran was not playing ball.
Rubio, Lavrov discuss Ukraine war
Rubio held talks with Lavrov today for just under an hour, ranging over the Ukraine war and normalisation of US-Russia ties, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
Lavrov “reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict”, it said, and told Rubio that Moscow remained committed to proposals put forward by the leaders of both nations.
In a one-paragraph statement, the US State Department said bilateral relations and “the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war” figured in the discussions.
Another focal point of talks in Manila has been the South China Sea and long-running tension between Beijing and US ally the Philippines, which Washington is treaty-bound to defend in the event of an attack on its vessels.
China’s coast guard, deployed widely for years far from its mainland, engaged in a brief altercation with Philippine navy personnel on Monday near a disputed reef in Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), prompting the countries to summon each other’s ambassadors.
‘Infringing and provocative actions’
In a second incident today, China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of “provocative actions” and said it had thwarted an intrusion at another disputed feature, the Scarborough Shoal.
The strategic atoll, long held by Beijing, falls within Manila’s EEZ and is the South China Sea’s most contested site.
The Philippine coast guard said water cannon was used on a government fisheries vessel that engaged in a “purely humanitarian undertaking”.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea overlapping parts of the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
China does not recognise a 2016 arbitration ruling that those claims had no basis in international law.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not attend today’s forum in Manila and is due to join a regional meeting in Kyrgyzstan.
He told ASEAN counterparts yesterday the South China Sea is “our common home”, where peace and stability rested in the hands of all.
Regional countries should “resist the incitement of foreign forces, oppose individual countries using the sea to make trouble”, an official statement quoted him as saying.
Today, a day after Wang and Rubio held talks in Manila on a range of issues, including Taiwan, Beijing began two days of live-fire drills in some parts of the Taiwan Strait near the shores of its southeastern province of Fujian.
They follow war games encircling Taiwan in December that were China’s most extensive.
