Southeast Asian leaders will gather in the Philippine capital this weekend for the annual ASEAN summit that will focus on global conflicts
MANILA, Philippines -- Some of the world’s most intractable conflicts will be high on the agenda when Southeast Asian leaders gather in the Philippine capital for annual summit meetings this weekend. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to join them for the final talks.
The three-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Asian and Western counterparts starts Sunday in a heavily guarded convention center in Manila Bay.
According to drafts of prepared post-summit communiques seen by The Associated Press, no breakthroughs are expected in the discussions that will focus on calling for the peaceful resolution of the South China Sea disputes, the civil strife in Myanmar and the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
This year, the Philippines holds the rotating leadership of ASEAN, a conservative regional bloc of 11 democratic and authoritarian states, including police states. The bloc has managed to keep together such a diverse grouping since its founding in 1967 largely because of its bedrock policy of non-interference in the members' domestic affairs.
In Manila, key rivals will again be face-to-face but no shake-ups are anticipated.
