ASEAN’s top diplomats under pressure to end Myanmar war, manage SCS disputes

Cebu(Philippines): Southeast Asia’s top diplomats met Wednesday under growing pressure to push a peace plan that has so far failed to end Myanmar’s civil war, to beat a deadline to conclude talks on a nonaggression pact with China this year.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a diverse 11-national bloc, has struggled to project unity and relevance for years. But it faced its latest setback last year when deadly fighting erupted between two members, Thailand and Cambodia, over a longtime border conflict.

Fighting ended with a ceasefire that was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless they agreed. Helping sustain that fragile ceasefire is high on the agenda of the ASEAN’s foreign ministers’ annual meeting in the central Philippine city of Cebu.

The Philippines holds ASEAN’s rotating chair this year, taking what would have been Myanmar’s turn after the country was suspended from chairing the meeting after its army forcibly ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021.