Russia, China FMs meet as ASEAN talks get underway in Laos

The foreign ministers of Russia and China met Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks in Laos, which kicked off with the South China Sea and the conflict in Myanmar high on the agenda.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement after his talks with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Vientiane that the pair had discussed issues of cooperation within ASEAN "in detail".

This was in the context of "certain countries" creating "a narrow alliance" with military-political mechanisms aimed at undermining security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

The two also discussed implementing "a new security architecture" in Eurasia, the statement said, without elaborating.

Wang said Beijing was "ready to work with Russia to uphold the ASEAN-centered, open and inclusive regional cooperation architecture"in the face of "external disturbances and obstacles", Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

The meeting on the fringes of the three-day meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers came a day after Wang held talks in China with Ukraine's top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba.

China is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded Beijing a "decisive enabler" of Moscow's war in Ukraine.

- South China Sea tensions -

The talks also came amid rising tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

A series of clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels at flashpoint reefs in recent months is on the agenda for the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, a diplomatic source said.

Beijing claims the waterway, through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually, almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in a June 17 confrontation when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops on a remote outpost.

The diplomatic source said Manila was trying to insert a mention of injuries to its people in the joint communique from the meeting.

China lashed out earlier this year after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington was ready to defend the Philippines if its forces, ships or aircraft came under attack in the South China Sea.

The United States has been deepening diplomatic and military contacts with Manila.

Beijing has insisted that the United States has "no right" to interfere in the South China Sea.

The foreign ministers of Canada, India and Britain arrived in Vientiane on Thursday for the talks as dialogue partners.

Blinken is also expected to attend and will "discuss the importance of adherence to international law in the South China Sea", according to the US State Department.

- 'Almost there' -

ASEAN ministers were, meanwhile, thrashing out a common position on the civil war raging in member state Myanmar on Thursday, a Southeast Asian diplomat at the talks said.

"Myanmar is not resolved yet but we're almost there," the source said, requesting anonymity in order to speak to the media.

A draft ASEAN communique seen by AFP said ministers "strongly condemned" the continued violence unleashed by the military's coup in 2021 that has plunged the country into turmoil.

The junta is struggling to crush armed opposition and has been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings over its crackdown on dissent.

It had previously refused to send "non-political representatives" to attend ASEAN meetings, but two senior bureaucrats are representing Myanmar at the talks in Vientiane.

The military's readiness to re-engage diplomatically was a sign of its "weakened position", the diplomatic source told AFP.

An ethnic minority armed group claimed on Thursday its fighters had captured a town and a military regional command in northern Shan state, although the junta denied the claim.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi slammed the junta's unwillingness to engage with a regional peace plan to resolve the crisis.

Weeks after it seized power, the junta had agreed to a five-point peace plan with ASEAN that it has since ignored.

"We shared the same view on the lack of commitment of Myanmar military junta to implement the 5PC (five point consensus)," Marsudi wrote on X after meeting her Singaporean counterpart.