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View all search resultsASEAN ends ministerial talks with push for stronger cooperation
The final day of the 59th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) shifted the focus from pressing security challenges to strengthening the bloc's engagement with external partners. The agenda featured new accessions to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) and a high-level conference on preventive diplomacy, maritime security and emerging security challenges.
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Philippines Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro and other leaders attend a group photo session during the High-Level Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, on July 24, 2026. (Pool via REUTERS/Aaron Favila)
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SEAN wrapped up a week of ministerial talks in Manila on Friday by reaffirming its commitment to peaceful dispute resolution and stronger cooperation with external partners, as regional conflicts and intensifying geopolitical rivalry continue to test the bloc's unity and centrality.
The final day of the 59th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), hosted by the Philippines, shifted the focus from pressing security challenges to strengthening the bloc's engagement with external partners.
The agenda featured new accessions to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) and a high-level conference on preventive diplomacy, maritime security and emerging security challenges.
Opening the conference, Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa P. Lazaro said that, fifty years after the TAC was established in Bali, ASEAN had demonstrated that small and medium-sized nations could chart their own course through peace and mutual respect, but warned that regional stability could not endure if the wider international order continued to fracture.
“Recent shocks have brought us into a sobering realization: cooperation is not merely an option; it is our ultimate strategic necessity. Yet peace is fragile,” Lazaro said.
“Peace is not a condition we inherit. Peace is a daily choice. It requires continuous labor, deliberate restraint, inclusive dialogue and an unyielding adherence to the rule of law,” she continued.
Read also: ASEAN urges safe transit through Hormuz
