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…