MANILA: The top diplomats of the US, China and Russia are due in Manila this week to attend the annual forum of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers that started on Monday.
The current ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is hosted by the Philippines as chair for 2026. It is part of a wider week of ASEAN-related diplomatic meetings in Manila, including with external partners.
Among the issues expected to be on the agenda are the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, South China Sea tensions, and the fallout of the US-Israeli war on Iran that brought fuel shortages, rising oil prices and disruptions to Southeast Asia’s international trade.
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial told reporters Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to take part in both the main ministerial meeting on Tuesday and post ministerial conferences on Thursday, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet his Philippine counterpart Theresa Lazaro.
“We believe that this engagement is very important because not only will it cover the bilateral relations between the Philippines and China, but it will also have something to do with regional, the impact of what’s happening globally to the region, to ASEAN,” Imperial said.
