ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

As Summit Gets Underway, ASEAN Calls For Joint Response to Iran War Fallout

Home to around 700 million people, Southeast Asia has been one of the regions most affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro chairs the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in Cebu, Philippines, May 7, 2026.

The economic fallout from the war in the Middle East has dominated talks between senior Southeast Asian officials at the 48th ASEAN Summit and related meetings, which got underway in the Philippines yesterday.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, chairing the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in Cebu, said that the ongoing conflict in Iran had disrupted energy flows, trade routes, and food supply chains within the 11-nation bloc.

“The crisis has also disrupted several sectors, including transportation and tourism, while putting millions of ASEAN nationals in West Asia at risk,” she said in her opening address to the AMM, as per the Malaysian state news agency Bernama.

ASEAN, home to around 700 million people, has been one of the regions most affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the outbreak of the Iran conflict in late February.

Lazaro said that ASEAN imports about 66 percent of its crude oil and is now facing a significant rise in fuel and energy costs that would, in turn, force up the prices of food and other essential goods.

The region’s governments have responded to the oil supply shock in a number of ways. Some have ramped up coal-powered electricity generation, and most have introduced a range of measures designed to conserve supplies. Most nations have also looked to alternative suppliers of oil, including Russia.

The energy supply shock was an example of how events outside the region could have “immediate and profound effects” on ASEAN economies, Lazaro said, calling for a joint regional response. “ASEAN needs to strengthen our crisis coordination and institutional readiness,” she added.

The energy crisis is one of the most pressing challenges facing the Philippines as this year’s ASEAN chair, one that threatens to absorb its finite attention and detract from other pressing issues facing the bloc. Among these are the conflict in Myanmar, the ongoing border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and continuing maritime tensions in the South China Sea.

The Philippines has already called two emergency meetings of ASEAN’s foreign ministers to discuss the Middle Eastern crisis, on March 13 and April 13, and as ASEAN chair, has called for deescalation and dialogue between the United States, Israel, and Iran.

Among the specific initiatives being pushed by the Philippines as chair is a regional oil-sharing framework agreement that will help alleviate the shortfall in supply. Manila says that it is also prioritizing the implementation of the long-awaited ASEAN-wide power grid plan in order to expedite energy sharing between member states.

In a separate joint meeting of ASEAN’s foreign and economic ministers yesterday, delegates discussed the development of a “crisis communication protocol” at the ministerial level to ensure “coherent, timely, and coordinated response” to all crises.

According to a statement released by the chair, the ministers also exchanged views on the broader regional implications of the Middle East war. They identified........

© The Diplomat