Philippine leader: ASEAN summit to focus on fuel, food, and migrant workers

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Friday, March 27, that the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits, scheduled for May 8–9, will proceed as planned but in a significantly streamlined format, focusing only on core issues.

The decision follows a consensus among ASEAN member states to narrow the agenda as countries continue to face the economic impact of rising fuel costs linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. 

“The consensus that we came to is that it is precisely now that we must coordinate our efforts. So, that is what we are going to do. We will proceed with the ASEAN Summit, but this will be… the way that we described it, is a bare-bones ASEAN Summit,” Marcos said during a media interview in Silang, Cavite.

He explained that discussions will centre on three priority areas: energy, food, and labour migration. “We will be talking about three main subjects: The supply of petroleum and petroleum products; the supply of food, and the price of food; and migrant workers. Those will be the three subject matters that we will be taking up in the ASEAN Summit. It will be over a period of maybe a day and a half instead of the multiple days that we had planned,” he said.

Marcos added that the summit’s duration will be reduced to approximately one and a half days, compared to the originally planned multi-day schedule.

Looking ahead, the president said the 49th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, scheduled for November, are expected to proceed as planned, although this remains tentative.

“So, for now, tentatively, the one in November should push through because it’s important as other world leaders will be coming here—from Europe, from China, from Korea, from Japan. We really need to deal with certain issues with their leaders. So, it’s going to be very important,” Marcos explained.

He also indicated that preparations for the November gathering will involve consultations with participating leaders later in the year. “But before we do that, maybe by September, October, we will ask what these leaders would want to do once they arrive, et cetera,” he said.

By Tamilla Hasanova