By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-07-18 16:11:42 | Updated at 2026-08-04 04:01:59
2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is travelling to the Philippines next week to meet his South-east Asian counterparts, the State Department said on July 17, as the rekindled war with Iran places traditional American allies under economic strain.
The trip comes as the pace of strikes in the Middle East shows no signs of slowing, and just days after US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping attack on China on July 16 – alleging Beijing carried out substantial meddling in US elections.
Rubio is due to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from ASEAN in Manila from July 21 to 23. He attended 2025’s gathering in Kuala Lumpur.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the trip “advances a clear US priority: a free and open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security and prosperity for the region and for the American people”.
For Washington, that means seeking to counter China’s growing influence.
The State Department provided no details of his schedule, but in 2025, Rubio met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN gathering. The two top diplomats spoke recently by telephone following Trump’s visit to China last spring.
Iran will be on the agenda in Manila, with Asian countries – particularly those that do not produce oil – being hit hard by the conflict and its repercussions for traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
About 80 per cent of the hydrocarbons passing through the waterway are bound for Asian countries, according to the International Energy Agency.
At a Cebu summit in May, the leaders of the 11 South-east Asian countries discussed creating a shared fuel reserve, according to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, whose country holds ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship in 2026.
Rubio is expected to meet Marcos as part of a strengthened US partnership with the Philippines, with the contentious issue of the South China Sea certain to come up.
The waters are disputed by several members of the bloc and China.
Incidents regularly occur between vessels in the area, nearly all of which Beijing claims, despite an international ruling that its position has no legal basis.
The situation in Myanmar is also expected to be discussed.
ASEAN foreign ministers on July 12 called on their Myanmar counterpart to make “concrete” progress on a peace plan aimed at ending the country’s civil war.
Myanmar has been largely sidelined within ASEAN since a 2021 military coup.
China is Myanmar’s main ally and one of the few countries to have backed the junta since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. REUTERS
