Cebu kickstarts Philippines’ year-long ASEAN chairmanship

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Exchanges of views on the “very broad” topic of regional and global development will kick off the Philippines’ year-long chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the “Queen City of the South.”

From January 28 to 29, the 10 foreign ministers of ASEAN, led by chairperson Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro, will be meeting at the posh NUSTAR Resort in Cebu City. The same complex will be host to the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), including the ASEAN Tourism Ministers’ meeting, from January 26 to 30.

The Mactan Expo Center in Lapu-Lapu City is host to the ASEAN Travel Exchange, happening alongside the ATF. Bai Hotel in Mandaue City is the International Media Center for all ASEAN events.

It’s a huge week for the province of Cebu, the Philippines, and the bloc.

For Cebu, it will be the first time in nearly two decades for the Visayas powerhouse to host major ASEAN events. For the Philippines, this week will dictate the pace and tone of the 11 months ahead as chair.

For ASEAN, a bloc with a population of nearly 700 million, discussions kicked off in Cebu will frame how the bloc handles a year when international norms are being challenged and the world order is shifting.

Myanmar, regional issues

The ASEAN Ministers’ Retreat (AMM) is where ministers will discuss the Philippines’ priorities as ASEAN chairperson, as well as its deliverables. The meeting will happen in two parts — informal consultations on the Five-Point Consensus, or the bloc’s roadmap to address security and political issues in junta-led Myanmar, happen on January 28.

Lazaro, chair of the AMM, is the concurrent ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar. The Philippines was host to a meeting of different stakeholders from Naypyidaw and Lazaro herself visited Myanmar before 2025’s end.

ASEAN has, in the past, criticized the junta for failing to adhere to the Five-Point Consensus.

Only 10 ASEAN foreign ministers, including Lazaro, will be meeting in Cebu.

Back in 2021, ASEAN decided that there would be no political participation from Myanmar in the bloc. That means members of the junta are not welcome, although senior officials from its bureaucracy are. Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs will be representing Naypyidaw in both the AMM and the Senior Officials’ Meeting that preceded it.

While ASEAN spokesperson Deputy Assistance Secretary Dax Imperial declined to name Myanmar’s representative, based on releases from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs it is U Hau Khan Sum.

The following day, on January 29, ministers will follow up on the outcomes of the last ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025, and “exchange of views on regional and global developments.” The ASEAN Summit is when leaders — the bloc’s heads of government and state — meet.

The Cebu meetings are preparatory in two ways.

AMM meetings bridge the gap — of implementation and follow-through — between summits. The meetings and events across Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu are also the province and its individual local governments’ dry run for a much larger event in a few months, the 48th ASEAN Summit in May 2025.

Maritime security top concern, too

If the Philippines’ ASEAN 2026 logo is any indication, maritime issues will always be top of mind with the archipelagic nation as chair. The logo features a balangay, a wooden boat used by pre-colonial Filipinos to travel across the archipelago and beyond to engage in long-distance trade.

According to host Philippines, the balangay represents the “essence of ASEAN’s journey — many nations, each with their own unique character, moving forward together aboard a single vessel.” It’s also from the word balangay that the Philippines derived its term for its smallest government unit, the barangay (village).

The chairmanship’s theme — “Navigating Our Future, Together” — and its three priorities (security anchors, prosperity corridors, and people empowerment) also play on maritime themes, rooted in community.

The South China Sea, unsurprisingly, will be among the issues ministers are expected to take up. They will also almost certainly discuss the Thailand-Cambodia border dispute. Former chair Malaysia, just before the end of its term in December 2025, hosted a special foreign ministers meeting precisely to discuss the situation between its two members.

Right after ministers meet in Cebu, negotiators from ASEAN and China will also meet in the queen city of the south, this time for a new round of talks on the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea.

In 2023, ASEAN foreign ministers aspired to conclude talks in July 2026. While Imperial, who is under the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)’s ASEAN affairs office, declined to comment on progress of milestone issues in negotiations, he told reporters on January 27, “What is important to underscore here is that the parties, [ASEAN members states] and China, they are all on board in terms of reaching a conclusion of the negotiations.”

“There is always that progress every time there is a meeting that is involved or every time that we hold meetings rather on these negotiations, there is always the progress seen and that is very encouraging to see,” he added.

Philippine officials have been cautiously optimistic when speaking on record about the chances of a COC conclusion in 2026. Negotiations have been going on for decades, since the signing of Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in 2002.

While all ASEAN members and China are parties to the talks, the Philippines is arguably among those most affected by tensions and disputes in the South China Sea, alongside co-claimants Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. – Rappler.com