“We expressed serious concern over the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East, particularly the renewed hostilities involving the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran.” That sentence opened the joint statement issued after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers met behind closed doors in Manila on Tuesday, the first day of a three-day round of talks.
The ministers asked for the fighting to stop and for ships to be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz again. The waterway is the energy artery the region leans on most heavily. Southeast Asia has more than 680 million people, and a large share of its oil and gas comes from the Middle East.
The war has already cost the region. Supply disruptions and price shocks hit hard enough that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a national energy emergency in March, aiming to protect fuel and food supplies.
Rubio arrives
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Manila on Tuesday morning for the ASEAN ministerial meeting on Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are also in town for the regional security forums. Rubio was due to sit down with Wang, which would be the highest-level U.S.-China contact since President Donald Trump went to Beijing in May to meet President Xi Jinping.
Addressing the ASEAN ministers, Rubio, as RFE/RL reported on July 22, said Iran was not serious about diplomacy. “The United States is always committed to diplomacy,” he said. “We’re open-minded and always willing to engage and negotiate.”
His warning on Hormuz was aimed at Asia as much as the Gulf. Iran claims authority over the waterway that it does not legally hold, Rubio argued, and letting one country control passage and charge tolls would set a precedent that others could copy, particularly in Asia’s contested waters. He put approximately 20 percent of worldwide energy supplies at risk and urged the ministers to defend “the rules which have underpinned 150 years of international trade and commerce.”
He also brought money. Rubio announced $4 billion in planned investments covering strategic defense infrastructure, energy security and supply chain resilience, plus nearly $130 million for demining assistance.
A shoal incident in the background
Hormuz was not the only item pressing on the delegates. Days of tension at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea spilled into the meeting. The Philippine military said Chinese coast guard personnel hit a Filipino sailor with a wooden baton, injuring him and damaging a vessel. China’s coast guard put the blame on Filipino forces.
Marcos summoned Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan on Tuesday afternoon. In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry called in the Philippine ambassador to lodge its own protest.
Both sides are negotiating a “code of conduct” for the sea, a process that has run for about two decades, and they aim to finish within the year.
Sources
- Southeast Asia's top diplomats hold security talks in Manila as US-Iran fighting rages (AP)
- Rubio Says Iran Not Serious About Diplomacy, Warns ASEAN On Hormuz Threat (RFE/RL)
