ASEAN Envoy Meets Myanmar Rebels, Opposition at Manila Summit
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- ASEAN special envoy Ma. Theresa Lazaro held "candid" and "productive" talks with Myanmar's armed rebel groups, National Unity Government representatives, and other stakeholders, and will brief counterparts at next week's Manila summit.
- The Philippines is hosting the foreign ministers' meeting as ASEAN chair for 2026, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expected to attend alongside ministers from Japan, Australia, Canada, and Britain.
- Myanmar is expected to be a key agenda item alongside the South China Sea code of conduct and geopolitical tensions linked to the Iran war's disruption to global trade and markets.
- ASEAN foreign ministers held their first face-to-face talks with Myanmar's foreign minister in Bangkok last weekend since the 2021 coup, which led ASEAN to bar Myanmar's leaders from its meetings.
- ASEAN and China remain committed to negotiating a "substantive and effective" South China Sea code of conduct, with officials expressing confidence progress toward concluding talks can be achieved in 2026.
- The summit falls shortly after the 10th anniversary of the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated the legal basis of China's sweeping South China Sea claims — a decision Beijing continues to reject.
Why it matters: The Philippines is leveraging its 2026 ASEAN chairmanship to open Myanmar's crisis to armed groups sidelined since the 2021 coup — a notable diplomatic expansion given ASEAN previously barred Myanmar's junta leaders. Convening Rubio, Wang Yi, and Lavrov in one room while pressing the South China Sea code of conduct signals Manila wants broader geopolitical theater for its regional priorities.
