US, China, Russia foreign ministers attending ASEAN meet

July 17, 2026 | 12:00am

DFA spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial confirmed in a press briefing that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the ASEAN meetings.

Businessworld / Erika Sinaking

MANILA, Philippines — The foreign ministers of the United States, China and Russia will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering in Manila next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced yesterday.

DFA spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial confirmed in a press briefing that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the ASEAN meetings.

Imperial could not say which meetings the three foreign ministers would be attending.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, India, United Kingdom, South Korea are also attending the high-level meetings.

The Philippines, this year’s ASEAN chair, will convene the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM)-Post Ministerial Conferences with dialogue partners, ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan, and South Korea), the high-level ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the commemorative activities for the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).

Manila will be at the center of Southeast Asian diplomacy, welcoming the foreign ministers of ASEAN, dialogue partners, and high, contracting parties of the TAC for discussions on the political, security and strategic issues shaping the region.

“This will be one of the most significant diplomatic engagements of our ASEAN chairship,” Imperial said.

The ARF serves as a platform for dialogue and cooperation on security matters related to the Indo-Pacific. It is made up of 27 member states, including the 11 ASEAN member states, the 10 ASEAN Dialogue Partners (Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States); and Bangladesh, North Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

The week’s engagements will begin with meetings at the senior officials level on July 19 to help lay the groundwork for ministerial deliberations and work on a broad range of issues.

The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights will engage with the ASEAN Foreign Ministers and the ASEAN Secretary General on July 20 to discuss human rights developments in the region.

ASEAN’s planned code of conduct for the South China Sea and Myanmar are among the issues at the talks.

Imperial said ASEAN and China are committed to negotiating a “substantive and effective” code of conduct as he expressed confidence that progress will lead to conclusion of talks this year.

“We see the commitment from all parties to really come up with a substantive and effective COC,” he said.