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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C) greets New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters at the 16th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026. [AFP]
Foreign ministers from fuel-stressed Southeast Asia called for freedom of navigation in international straits on Thursday as they wrapped a week of meetings largely overshadowed by the US-Iran war.
A joint communique issued at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering in Manila also repeated calls for self-restraint in a Middle East conflict that has carried economic ripple effects throughout the region.
Visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week warned ASEAN envoys that Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz would set a "dangerous precedent".
