Top diplomats from Asia, Europe and North America met for the security-focused Asean Regional Forum, where ministers were expected to call for a peaceful settlement of renewed and intensifying hostilities in the Middle East.
The conflict in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz are set to dominate the Manila meetings attended by US Secretary of State 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 Middle East oil, exposing it to fallout that has stoked global inflation.
“We convene against the backdrop of profound geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty,” Maria Theresa Lazaro, the foreign secretary of the Philippines, which is chairing the grouping, said in opening remarks yesterday.
“These issues transcend borders and underscore the reality that no nation can address today’s complex security environment alone.”
The world has entered a “new period of turbulence and transformation”, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying said yesterday, warning of an urgent need for peace and stability.
A day earlier, Rubio said the United States wanted a diplomatic solution in the Middle East, but Teheran was not playing ball.
Rubio held talks with Lavrov yesterday 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.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not attend yesterday’s forum in Manila and was due to join a regional meeting in Kyrgyzstan.
He told Asean counterparts on Wednesday the South China Sea was “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. — Reuters
