Marcos: Mideast crisis calls for agile Asean
Cebu—The 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit on Friday spotlighted maritime and energy security concerns as leaders of the regional bloc grappled with urgent challenges to food security, disaster preparedness and the safety of their citizens in the wake of the Middle East conflict.
In his speech at the opening of the summit in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island, President Marcos said the regional bloc was continuing “to navigate an increasingly complex global environment.”
“The increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East has impacted our region, challenging us to remain agile in the face of these uncertainties that threaten lifestyles, livelihoods, and lives,” he said.
The US and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February caused sharp rises in global oil prices. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz where about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passes, has exacerbated the resulting economic crisis in many nations dependent on petroleum from the Middle East, which is also a major source of fertilizer.
“Neither distance nor partnerships alone insulate any nation from the ripple effects of conflicts halfway around the world,” the President said.
Mr. Marcos said Asean nations have experienced the effects of external shocks, particularly disruptions in oil supply that have affected business operations, transportation, employment and cost of living.
“Even if the tensions de-escalate in time, the damage to critical infrastructure, to vital systems, and to trust in general will continue to be felt for years to come,” he said.
Scaled-down hosting
The Philippines was caught by the Iran war as it was making final preparations as this year’s host of the Asean summit, prompting Mr. Marcos to order scaled down non-essential activities, shifting some meetings from physical to virtual platforms and stripping the annual gathering of its traditional pomp and pageantry.
“The work of Asean must continue, not despite the challenges, but because the times demand our answers to those challenges for our peoples, for our countries, for Asean. So, as we begin our work today, let our discussions be guided by wisdom, openness, and our enduring commitment to one another,” he said
A key dilemma of the Asean leaders is how to carry out large-scale evacuations from the Middle East, where more than a million of their citizens work and live, if widespread hostilities flare up again.
Asean leaders discussed enhancing early warning systems, improving consular coordination, and ensuring faster delivery of assistance during crises.
Several Southeast Asians have been killed since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran struck in retaliation.
A draft of a joint declaration by the leaders which outlines a contingency plan that The Associated Press (AP) reported it had seen, called on Asean’s 11 member states to share information and strengthen coordination with international organizations “to ensure the safety and welfare of Asean nationals in affected areas.”
Mr. Marcos stressed the need for practical and coordinated action, saying concerns over the safety of their citizens, and food and energy security “are no longer abstract.”
“They are immediate responsibilities that call for foresight, coordination, and concrete collective action,” Mr. Marcos said.
Energy security
On energy security, the President said all the Asean leaders considered putting up an oil reserve in the region to reduce dependency on volatile fossil fuels. Details of the plan have yet to be finalized.
“The one thing that we talked about that concerned fuel supply was a fuel reserve that is to be to put together,” he said in a press conference.
“We are coming together and … developing, the idea that we will have a fuel reserve. All the kinds of fuels, all the different kinds of crude oil. All the way to jet fuel. All the way to the most refined fuel,” he said.
Mr Marcos said he learned that Laos was producing electricity for export from Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone.
He said countries would have to put together “an algorithm” that will help them decide how and who to help with energy problems.
“The ones who are most in need, how will they get it? What do we do about the others who are also in need? Who comes first? Those are the questions that still need to be decided,” Mr. Marcos said.
He said he was “very optimistic” because they were talking with “very smart people.”
“And they have, and more importantly than that, they are committed to making this succeed because everyone is suffering and everyone wants to get out of the situation,” he continued.
In addition, he also pushed for the operationalization of the Asean Power Grid and the expedited ratification of the Asean Framework Agreement on Petroleum Security, or Apsa.
Apsa is intended to ensure mutual support among Southeast Asian countries during supply shortages, while the call for operationalization of the Asean Power Grid is meant to connect the electricity networks of all 11 member states for cross-border power trading.
“All of these are new ideas, and some of them need to be actually ratified by the individual countries,” he said.
Asked for a timetable for the power grid and Apsa, he said each country had a different schedule.
“But the understanding of everybody is that everything is Asap (as soon as possible),” Mr. Marcos said. “We needed it last month; forget about next month, six months, or a year from now. We needed it yesterday, if not sooner.”
Asean Maritime Center
All the leaders also reached a consensus to establish an Asean Maritime Center in the Philippines. It is not to provoke any country but to continue freedom of navigation and peaceful navigation in the South China Sea as the situation in the waterway “becomes more unreadable,” he said.
Maritime center is aimed at strengthening of coordination on maritime concerns across Southeast Asia.
“This becomes more important—that there will be a central repository for maritime issues that will apply to Asean members,” Marcos said. “What we are looking for, or what is the ultimate reason for having this Maritime Centre is not to confront or not to somehow push back on any single force or any single country.”
He said the region was very aware of the effects of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“But if such a thing would happen in the South China Sea, the inevitable consequences would be alarming, just to even think about,” he added.
Mr. Marcos said he was “very optimistic” that the proposal would be adopted, particularly as the discussions on the matter progressed “very, very quickly.”
He also pushed for the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve energy forecasting, strengthen grid management and support the transition toward clean energy.
Non-aggression pact
In a separate statement by the leaders on maritime issues that will be made public after the summit, they pledged to “endeavour to conclude the negotiation of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.”
Negotiations on the proposed non-aggression pact between the Asean and China have dragged on for more than a decade as increasingly tense confrontations intensified in recent years, particularly between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces.
That has stoked criticisms of Asean as an ineffective “talk shop,” where leaders show up each year in their native shirts and pose for a group handshake to project unity despite deep divisions.
Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines are involved in the decadeslong maritime dispute in the South China Sea. The other members of the regional bloc are Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP
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