ASEAN to call for open straits as US-Iran war casts shadow

Foreign ministers from fuel-stressed Southeast Asia will call for freedom of navigation in international straits when they wrap a week of meetings largely overshadowed by the US-Iran war, according to a draft communique seen by AFP. The draft statement expected to emerge from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering in Manila will also repeat calls for self-restraint in a Middle East conflict that has carried economic ripple effects throughout the region. The draft communique inserts previously unused language targeting "freedom of navigation in and overflight above straits" while separately calling for "unimpeded" passage through the Strait of Hormuz.