Southeast Asian leaders opened the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila on Sunday, beginning three days of talks dominated by the South China Sea, the crisis in Myanmar and the region’s shifting great-power politics.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., chairing the summit under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together”, used his opening address to press fellow leaders to advance an effective and substantive code of conduct for the South China Sea, grounded in international law including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He told the plenary that maritime cooperation and regional security were central priorities of the Philippines’ chairmanship, and then formally declared the summit open.
The code has been under negotiation between ASEAN and China for years, and Manila had hoped to conclude it during 2026. Philippine foreign ministry officials said the talks had reached about 70 per cent progress, while cautioning that the figure did not mean 70 per cent of the text had been agreed and that several provisions still needed refinement. Any breakthrough would come during the ASEAN-China summit with Premier Li Qiang, expected on Monday.
Myanmar returns to the centre of the agenda. Leaders are expected to review the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus peace plan, which has made little headway since the 2021 coup, and to consider a new leaders’ document on the crisis. The issue has divided the 11-member bloc, with some members warming to military-backed leaders in Naypyidaw while others push for a harder line.
The summit’s economic centrepiece is the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, which leaders are expected to sign during the meetings. Officials describe it as the first binding, region-wide digital economy pact, aimed at harmonising rules for cross-border data flows and electronic trade across a market of some 700 million people.
Energy and food security, transnational crime and online scam networks, and transboundary haze also sit on the agenda, alongside the wider fallout from conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Nineteen world and institutional leaders are taking part in the related summits, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who arrived on Saturday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among the guests. US President Donald Trump is due to arrive on Tuesday afternoon, shortly before the closing ceremony, for a special ASEAN-US summit and a meeting of the Quad grouping with Japan, Australia and India. He then travels to Shenzhen for the APEC leaders’ meeting.
The Philippines will hand the ASEAN chairmanship to Singapore at the summit’s close on Tuesday.
Sources: ANI via New Kerala — https://www.newkerala.com/news/a/asean-must-advance-effective-south-china-sea-code-729.htm ; Philippine Information Agency — https://pia.gov.ph/news/marcos-to-lead-asean-talks-on-food-energy-security-and-regional-cooperation/ ; Bernama via PJM TV — https://pjmtv.com/en/news/asean-summit-manila-south-china-sea-myanmar
