ASEAN should adhere to rule of law, Philippines' top diplomat says

CEBU, Philippines — Southeast Asian countries should steadfastly maintain restraint and adhere to international law as acts of aggression across Asia and “unilateral actions” elsewhere in the world threaten the rules-based global order, Manila’s top diplomat said Thursday.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro did not provide details of the geopolitical alarm she raised before her counterparts in the 11-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations who were holding their first major closed-door meetings this year in the Philippines' central seaside city of Cebu.

Several ASEAN members, however, have expressed deep concern over the secretive U.S. strike that resulted in the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on orders from U.S. President Donald Trump. China's intensifying aggressive stance on Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea have also troubled the region for years.

Calling out the U.S. and China, among the largest trading and defense partners of ASEAN countries, have been a dilemma and diplomatic tightrope.

“Across our region, we continue to see tensions at sea, protracted internal conflicts and unresolved border and humanitarian concerns,” Lazaro said in her opening speech before ASEAN counterparts.

“At the same time, developments beyond Southeast Asia, including unilateral actions that carry cross-regional implications, continue to affect regional stability and erode multilateral institutions and the rules- based international order,” she said.

“These realities underscore the interim importance of ASEAN’s time-honored principles of restraint, dialogue and adherence to international law in seeking to preserve peace and stability to our peoples.”

The Philippines holds ASEAN's rotating chair this year, taking what would have been Myanmar's turn after the country was suspended from chairing the meeting after its army forcibly ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government in 2021.

Founded in 1967 in the Cold War era, ASEAN has an unwieldy membership of diverse countries that range from vibrant democracies like the Philippines, a longtime treaty ally of Washington, to authoritarian states like Laos and Cambodia, which are close to Beijing.

The regional bloc adopted the theme "Navigating our future, Together" this year but that effort to project unity faced its latest setback last year when deadly fighting erupted between two members, Thailand and Cambodia, over a longtime border conflict.

Aside from discussing the deadly fighting that embroiled Thailand and Cambodia before both forged a U.S.-backed ceasefire last year, the ASEAN foreign ministers will deliberate how to push a five-point peace plan for the war in Myanmar, issued by the regional bloc’s leaders in 2021. The plan demanded, among others, an immediate end to fighting and hostilities, but it has failed to end the violence or foster dialogue among contending parties.

ASEAN foreign ministers are also under pressure to conclude negotiations with China ahead of a self-imposed deadline this year on a so-called “code of conduct” to manage disputes over long-unresolved territorial rifts in the South China Sea. China has expansive claims in the waterway, a key global trade route, that overlap with those of four ASEAN members, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

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Jacqueline Hernandez in Cebu, Philippines, contributed to this report.