In Manila on September 9, Vietnam's Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Hoang Giang brought a quiet but firm appeal to Southeast Asia's senior officials: that in an era of mounting regional volatility, solidarity is not a diplomatic courtesy but a strategic imperative. Speaking within the ASEAN and ASEAN+3 frameworks, he called on the bloc to draw more deliberately on its existing treaties, legal commitments, and dialogue mechanisms — not as relics of a calmer past, but as living instruments for an uncertain future. His words arrived at a moment of transition, with the 49th ASEAN Summit approaching a