In Manila, the foreign ministers of Southeast Asia gathered for their 59th annual meeting beneath the weight of a question that has long haunted multilateral institutions: whether collective promises can survive the friction of diverging interests and mounting crises. Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono pressed his counterparts to move beyond declaration toward demonstrable action, as the bloc faces simultaneous tests from Middle East energy disruptions, a decades-stalled South China Sea agreement, and an unresolved civil conflict in Myanmar. The moment carries a particular gravity — ASEAN ha