US and China have not confirmed a top diplomat meeting at the forum, though it is widely expected<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with members of the media before departing for Bahrain International Airport after his visit to the Middle East to discuss the interim deal between the US and Iran with Arab Gulf allies, in Manama, Bahrain, June 25, 2026. REUTERS <\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads this weekend to meetings of Asia-Pacific countries in Manila, where \u200bhe is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart to prepare a possible September summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US \u200cPresident Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also expected to be in Manila next week for\u00a0meetings<\/a>\u00a0involving the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and ministers from Japan, Australia, Canada and Britain.<\/p>\n The gatherings come at a time of global instability, with the\u00a0Iran war<\/a>\u00a0disrupting global trade and creating economic \u200bstress across Asia.<\/p>\n The US State Department said Rubio would leave for Manila on Sunday to attend the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, the \u200bEast Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the ASEAN Regional Forum<\/a> Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.<\/p>\n It said Rubio will also \u2060meet with senior government officials from Indo-Pacific countries in a trip lasting until next Thursday.<\/p>\n “The Secretary’s visit advances a clear US priority: a free \u200band open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security, and prosperity for the region and for the American people,” a statement said, adding that Rubio would \u200balso use the trip to deepen the US partnership with the Philippines.<\/p>\n The US and China have yet to confirm whether their top diplomats will meet during the forum, although it is widely expected and representatives from the two countries have previously done so.<\/p>\n Analysts say a Rubio meeting with Wang Yi is likely to focus on \u200bpreparations for a second summit this year between Trump and Xi following their\u00a0last meeting in May<\/a>. Trump has said Xi will visit the US \u200bat the end of September.<\/p>\n Tense US-China relations have stabilized under a temporary trade truce reached by Trump and Xi in October, but deep differences define ties, which \u200cmany analysts \u2060see mired in a\u00a0new form of Cold War<\/a>.<\/p>\n South China Sea, Myanmar on the agenda <\/strong><\/p>\n The forum is also expected to address tensions in the strategic\u00a0South China Sea<\/a>, where territory is contested by several regional countries.<\/p>\n Read More: <\/strong>China\u2019s Xi calls for global AI order rooted in equity, cooperation<\/a><\/p>\n yanmar is another issue after ASEAN foreign ministers last week held informal talks with the country’s foreign minister, the first such face-to-face\u00a0meeting<\/a>\u00a0since a 2021 coup that led to ASEAN barring its leaders from its meetings.<\/p>\n The meetings come shortly after the \u200b10th anniversary of a\u00a0landmark 2016 ruling<\/a>\u00a0\u200bthat invalidated the legal basis \u2060of China’s sweeping South China Sea claims, a decision Beijing rejects.<\/p>\n Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial said ASEAN and China remained committed to negotiating a “substantive and effective” code of conduct for the waterway and expressed confidence \u200bprogress could be achieved this year.<\/p>\n Harrison Pretat, a maritime security expert at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International \u200bStudies think tank, \u2060expects Rubio to reiterate US criticism of China’s South China Sea behavior, but in a measured way given the Trump administration’s other priorities with China.<\/p>\n “He will also not want that to completely derail his talks with Wang Yi,” he said, “so I would expect a calibrated approach rather than an attempt to \u2060really hammer \u200bBeijing. I think China will likewise want to state their position and move on \u200bto other things \u2014 but there is always room to be surprised.”<\/p>\n Another CSIS Southeast Asia expert, Andreyka Natalegawa, said a likely focus would be Southeast Asian\u00a0scam centers<\/a>, which the Trump administration \u200bsays are costing Americans\u00a0billions of dollars a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US and China have not confirmed a top diplomat meeting at the forum, though it is widely expected US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with members of the media before departing for Bahrain International Airport after his visit to the Middle East to discuss the interim deal between the US and Iran with Arab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/rubio-r1784296358-0\/rubio-r1784296358-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t