ASEAN Summit in Cebu calls for joint response to energy crisis

CEBU, Philippines - The fallout of the Middle East crisis took centre stage at meetings of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN on Thursday, with renewed calls for a united front in the face of serious challenges for its fuel import-dependent economies.

Concerns of energy and food supply security following a blockade of the critical Strait of Hormuz weigh heavy on the bloc of 11 nations, home to nearly 700 million and one of the regions worst-hit after the Iran war choked off energy supplies.

The Philippines, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has pushed to expedite approval of a regional oil-sharing framework agreement.

Economic ministers proposed ideas on Thursday for diversifying supply sources and routes and streamlining crisis communications.

"ASEAN needs to strengthen our crisis coordination and institutional readiness in times of crisis," said Ma. Theresa Lazaro, the Philippine foreign affairs secretary.

"The ongoing crisis in the Middle East and its far-reaching repercussions ... remind us that developments beyond our region can have immediate and profound effects on ASEAN," she said before a meeting with counterparts.

THAI, CAMBODIAN LEADERS TO HOLD RARE MEET

Diplomats and analysts say the energy issue will prove a test of the Philippines' skills as chair, forcing it to shape a rare regional response while preventing ASEAN's own conflicts from slipping down the agenda.

These include Myanmar's civil war and last year's deadly and still unresolved border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, where a fragile ceasefire has held since late December.

The Philippines arranged a three-way meeting in Cebu of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia on Thursday, ahead of a summit of ASEAN leaders the next day.

Troops remain deployed on both sides of the 817-km (508-mile) Thai-Cambodia border after two rounds of fighting in July and December, when territorial skirmishes quickly escalated into air strikes and heavy exchanges of artillery and rockets.

"They want an atmosphere for an ASEAN meeting that will go well," Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. "That's why they want us to see each other."

The first clashes ended after vaunted intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump, but his efforts to halt the second flare-up failed and the two sides weeks later agreed bilaterally to a truce, ending 20 days of fighting.

But Thailand indicated no agreement would be reached on Thursday, with a government spokesperson saying the priority was rebuilding trust.

ACTION BEYOND RHETORIC

ASEAN, with a combined gross domestic product of about $3.8 trillion, has long struggled to coordinate its responses to crises, with meetings typically resulting in pledges to cooperate, rather than a clear strategy or binding agreements.

On Thursday, economic ministers "identified practical, concrete response measures" on strengthening energy and food security and committed to intensify coordination, the chair said in a statement that made no specific mention of the fuel-sharing plan.

Yet the scale of the energy supply shock was likely to push the bloc beyond rhetoric, as no ASEAN country could escape the issue, said former Philippine diplomat Laura del Rosario.

ASEAN leaders will on Friday call for good-faith negotiations between the United States and Iran and a halt in hostilities, according to a working draft of a statement seen by Reuters.

It also called for international law to be upheld and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, normally a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies.

"We further stressed the need to preserve the unimpeded flow of energy and essential goods ... in order to safeguard economic stability and strengthen resilience across ASEAN," it said.

The draft also urges swift progress to ratify an ASEAN fuel-sharing pact to ensure its "earliest possible entry into force", on a voluntary, commercial basis.

MYANMAR SEEKS RE-ENGAGEMENT

Foreign ministers were also briefed by special envoy Lazaro on the crisis in Myanmar, an issue that has long divided the bloc. The Philippines gave no details of the briefing.

Myanmar's new, nominally civilian government is keen to re-engage with ASEAN following an election swept by a party backed by the military, which had ruled for five years since a 2021 coup.

ASEAN has not recognised the election or indicated when the leadership of Myanmar, where coup leader Min Aung Hlaing is now president, can return to its summits after five years in the cold.

The army-backed government may need to convince ASEAN countries it is sincere about peace amid ongoing fighting, after two recent amnesties and a reduced sentence and transfer to house arrest for ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Little is known about the status or whereabouts of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the Philippines called on Wednesday for the ASEAN special envoy to be given access to her, as a sign of Myanmar's "genuine commitment to national reconciliation".

- Mikhail Flores in Cebu, Philippines and Nestor Corrales in Manila; Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok; Writing by Karen Lema and Martin Petty; Editing by Alison Williams and Clarence Fernandez/Reuters