In Manila, the economic ministers of Southeast Asia's ten-member bloc gathered for their 58th annual meeting — a quiet but consequential ritual in which the region's trade and growth priorities are shaped before they rise to the level of heads of state. Against a backdrop of Middle East-driven supply disruptions and global uncertainty, the ministers worked through questions of digital transformation, small business resilience, and cross-border commerce, reaffirming that ASEAN's preferred answer to external pressure remains collective action rather than fragmentation. The outcomes of these thre