LANGKAWI, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers gathered Sunday for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc's new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar's drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Associated PressASEAN FOREIGN MINISTERS' RETREAT -- From left: Laos's Foreign Affairs Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane, Myanmar's Permanent Secretary to ASEAN Aung Kyaw Moe, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan, Philippines's Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Brunei Darussalam Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof,...
"There is much to prepare for. Above all, what we need to anticipate are the potential challenges to ASEAN centrality," he told the opening of the meeting."We must ensure that ASEAN remains our central go-to platform for solution seeking... We are the speakers and not the spoken-for. We must drive our own path forward."
Malaysia, which brought Myanmar into ASEAN during its chairmanship of the bloc in 1997, is expected to take a more proactive stance as the Myanmar crisis has led to the flourishing of criminal activities, online scams and human trafficking along Myanmar's border. Chinese and Philippine vessels clashed repeatedly last year. Chinese forces also assaulted Vietnamese fishermen and Chinese patrol vessels ventured into areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones.
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