CEBU — Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plan to issue a declaration at their annual summit on Friday in the central Philippine island province of Cebu outlining a contingency plan to uphold international law, sovereignty and freedom of navigation. The declaration also sets out a crisis plan to address energy shortages and other global problems linked to the Middle East war.

The draft declaration states that ASEAN leaders "emphasized the importance of upholding international law and ensuring that regional cooperation remains anchored in dialogue, trust and respect for sovereignty." According to the draft, Southeast Asia will "maintain open, transparent and predictable markets as well as secure and open sea lanes, and ensure freedom of navigation, the safe, unimpeded and continuous transit passage of vessels and aircraft in straits used for international navigation" in order to "preserve the unimpeded flow of essential goods, including food, energy and key inputs, in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

The contingency plan calls for possible ratification this year of an agreement that would pave the way for coordinated emergency fuel sharing, the planning of a regional power grid, the diversification of the region's sources of crude oil, the promotion of electric vehicles and the study of new technologies, including civilian nuclear energy. The draft also states that leaders are seeking a possible "ASEAN crisis communication and coordination protocol to ensure a coherent, timely and coordinated regional response to crises."

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the summit will focus on the region's energy security, food supply and the protection of its people, including more than a million Southeast Asian workers and seafarers in the Middle East. Marcos ordered the gathering stripped of its traditional pomp in recognition of economic headwinds worldwide.

Several workers in the Middle East, including two from the Philippines, have been killed in the current fighting, and thousands of workers from Southeast Asia have either flown home or been evacuated by their governments from the region. The Asian Development Bank warned in March that prolonged disruptions from the Middle East war could choke growth and spur inflation in Asia and the Pacific region, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas from the Middle East.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. East Timor was accepted as a full member in October last year. Southeast Asia, home to about 680 million people, has decades-long territorial disputes involving China, a five-year civil war in Myanmar and a recent border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.