The 49th ASEAN Summit opened in Manila on Sunday, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presiding and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn attending, alongside regional leaders, foreign ministers and invited guests. The summit runs to Nov 17 under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together,” and the Philippines hands the chairship to Singapore when it ends.
Marcos said geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, new technologies, climate change and transnational threats were moving faster than any one country could handle alone. ASEAN has 11 members, but they differ in political systems, security partnerships and economic ties to major powers, and the bloc decides by consensus. The opening is the start of a sequence of leaders’ sessions and partner meetings.
Australia and the Philippines sign defence arrangement
Australia and the Philippines signed a new Defence Cooperation Arrangement in Manila on Nov 15, witnessed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It builds on their Status of Visiting Forces Agreement and an earlier defence cooperation memorandum. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro described it as an administrative simplification, saying procedures that took many steps would become much shorter.
It covers maritime security and awareness, information sharing, strategic dialogue and joint planning, training, interoperability, defence infrastructure, and humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
Australia also announced investment in Philippine maritime-domain awareness, including drones, monitoring equipment and training to detect maritime and cyber threats. Australia backs the Philippines on the South China Sea and endorses the 2016 arbitral ruling rejecting the legal basis of China’s expansive claims. China rejects that ruling and criticises military cooperation between Manila and its partners.
Myanmar
ASEAN adopted its Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar in April 2021, after the February 2021 coup. It calls for an end to violence, dialogue among all parties, mediation by a special envoy of the ASEAN chair, humanitarian aid through ASEAN mechanisms and an envoy visit to meet all parties. Five years on, it has not delivered a political settlement.
Myanmar remains a member, but its military-backed political leadership has not been allowed to represent it at high-level meetings. At the opening, Myanmar was represented by Han Win Aung, Director-General of ASEAN Affairs at its Foreign Ministry. Thailand has floated letting Myanmar’s foreign minister attend ASEAN foreign ministers’ meetings.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who is also the ASEAN special envoy, said on Nov 14 that there would be no easing of the approach for now, and the question is still under discussion. Marcos reaffirmed ASEAN’s commitment to constructive, principled engagement and the Five-Point Consensus.
South China Sea
China’s claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, and Indonesia has tensions around the North Natuna Sea. ASEAN and China have been negotiating a Code of Conduct for years. Philippine officials have put progress at between 70 and 80 percent, and three Southeast Asian diplomats estimated that about 80 percent of the paragraphs had been provisionally agreed.
United States, China and the Quad
Chinese Premier Li Qiang is due to take part on Nov 16 and is expected to leave before US President Donald Trump arrives on Nov 17 for ASEAN-US and Quad-related meetings. The Quad groups the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
Maritime Centre
On Nov 14, ASEAN foreign ministers adopted the concept note and terms of reference for an ASEAN Maritime Centre, to be based in the Philippines as a regional platform for maritime cooperation and the blue economy.
Scam centres and Nepali workers
A draft statement for the Nov 17 East Asia Summit addresses online scams, human trafficking and cross-border crime. It calls for better information sharing, threat assessments, law enforcement cooperation and action against scam centres. It is a draft and not yet adopted.
UN agencies have documented victims from more than 80 countries, many recruited with fake job offers and some held against their will with passports confiscated. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates losses from scam operations across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand at US$88.3 billion to US$114.1 billion in 2025.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said on July 24 that 860 Nepali citizens had been rescued: 733 in Cambodia, 113 in Myanmar, eight in Laos and six in Thailand. It said 49 Nepalis were in Cambodian prisons.
Energy, haze and technology
Draft statements address peaceful resolution of the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. The Middle East war has raised concern about fuel supply, shipping and prices, and ASEAN is looking at petroleum cooperation and possible coordinated emergency fuel help.
Indonesian forest and land fires continue to cause haze in neighbouring countries. The Philippines has also put digitalisation, artificial intelligence, supply-chain resilience and support for small businesses on its agenda. For Nepal, which is not an ASEAN member, energy and shipping effects would be indirect.
