ASEAN's Myanmar envoy talks to rebels before Manila summit
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- Lazaro described her talks with Myanmar armed groups as "candid" and "productive" and said she would brief ASEAN foreign ministers on those discussions at next week's Manila summit.
- The Manila summit is expected to draw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and ministers from Japan, Australia, Canada, and Britain.
- ASEAN held its first informal face-to-face meeting with Myanmar's foreign minister in Bangkok last weekend—the first such contact since the 2021 coup triggered ASEAN's bar on Myanmar's military leaders.
- ASEAN and China remain committed to a "substantive and effective" South China Sea code of conduct, targeting progress by 2026, even as the summit coincides with the 10th anniversary of the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China's sweeping claims—a ruling Beijing still rejects.
Why it matters: Manila's "open invitation" to all Myanmar stakeholders—including rebel groups the junta doesn't control—broadens ASEAN's diplomatic channel beyond the post-2021 approach that shut out Myanmar's military leaders. With Rubio, Wang Yi, and Lavrov all expected, the summit becomes a rare three-way venue for hashing out both Myanmar's civil war and South China Sea disputes simultaneously.
