ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

ASEAN Foreign Ministers Call for ‘Immediate Cessation’ of Middle East Hostilities

The fighting between Iran and the United States is set to have “immediate and long-term effects” on Southeast Asia and its people, the ministers said.

Flags of the 11 ASEAN member states stand on stage at the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, Philippines, July 21, 2026.

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have expressed “serious concern” over the renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran and called for the resumption of free movement through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a joint statement released after the close of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila on Tuesday, ministers from the 11-nation bloc said that they were “deeply concerned that these developments severely undermine the ongoing efforts of key mediators and diminish the prospects for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and diplomacy.”

“We called on all parties concerned to exercise utmost self-restraint and avoid any acts that may further aggravate the situation,” the statement said, while calling for “a complete and immediate cessation of hostilities across all fronts in the Middle East.”

The ceasefire between Iran and the U.S., which was initially agreed in April and then formalized in June, collapsed earlier this month after both sides accused the other of reneging on their agreements.

The U.S. has since resumed its air attacks on Iran, which have been met by increased Iranian attacks on shipping and targets across the region, one of which killed three U.S. military personnel in Jordan. As Al Jazeera reported, the conflict has in recent days “expanded beyond military targets, with strikes increasingly hitting civilian infrastructure while both sides continue to harden their public positions.”

Southeast Asian nations were hit hard by the initial phase of the war, which began with the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28 and prompted Iran to block shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. This led to an immediate spike in the price of oil and gas from the Middle East, the source of around 60 percent of Asia’s crude oil imports.

While each nation’s degree of vulnerability to Middle Eastern oil imports differs considerably, ASEAN’s foreign ministers welcomed the initial cessation of hostilities in April, calling for both Iran and the U.S. to “continue negotiations that will lead to the permanent end of the conflict and lasting peace and stability in the region.”

Echoing ASEAN’s earlier statements about the conflict, the foreign ministers noted on Tuesday that the return to fighting, which came after a short resumption of shipping........

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