Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief, which features my reporting from the ASEAN leaders’ summit in the Philippines.

The highlights this week: From Cebu, ASEAN searches for fuel crisis solutions, opens the door a crack to Myanmar’s junta, and promises progress on the South China Sea. Plus, in Malaysia, pig farming gets political.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief, which features my reporting from the ASEAN leaders’ summit in the Philippines.

The highlights this week: From Cebu, ASEAN searches for fuel crisis solutions, opens the door a crack to Myanmar’s junta, and promises progress on the South China Sea. Plus, in Malaysia, pig farming gets political.

ASEAN Struggles With Fuel Crisis Response

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders’ summit in Cebu, Philippines, over the weekend, one topic dominated the agenda: the fuel crisis. But while some constructive plans are being proposed, a coordinated response from the grouping looks doubtful.

Economic circumstances dictated that this would be an austerity summit. The planned five days were cut down to three. And more than 600 preparatory meetings were moved from in-person events to online to save costs.

In his opening statement, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the summit’s host, initially struck an oddly whimsical tone. Marcos noted that the summit was being held a nondenominational chapel and said he hoped that a “spirit of romance” would permeate the talks.

He quickly grew more serious: “The recent crisis is a stark reminder of how vulnerable our economies remain to sudden shifts in the international order and, consequently, the global economy.” The region should work together to mitigate this, he said.

But what can ASEAN actually do about these issues? As Marcos noted in a press conference, most of the fuel supply agreements in the region that have followed the crisis have taken place on a bilateral basis.

The most immediate ASEAN-level measure is the push to ratify the ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement (APSA). But whether this will actually help seems unclear. The agreement, first introduced in 1986, imagines that when one country faces an energy crisis, other ASEAN members will supply it with fuel. And it envisions the creation of a stockpile to be drawn on during emergencies.

All good ideas. But the current situation is that every single ASEAN country is already experiencing a fuel crisis simultaneously.

Coordination is also going to be tricky. Marcos said there was a strong consensus within ASEAN to get the APSA set up ASAP. But he also admitted that key questions—such as who will pay how much, where the stockpile will be located, and how it would be divvied up when crisis hits­—still need to be hammered out.

We also don’t have a timeline for the agreement’s implementation. Marcos assured the press that it would be soon. When a journalist pressed for specifics, though, he got quite waspish and said, “If you have a suggestion to make it faster, please tell us.”

In the longer term, there was........

© Foreign Policy