The last day of the ASEAN ministerial meetings saw the usually noninterventionist bloc take a novel approach to resolving the Myanmar crisis, though soaring US-China tensions overshadowed the East Asia Summit meeting.

ASEAN has so far resisted official engagement with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), which the junta calls “terrorists”, as well as other elements of the country’s opposition movement.

Pelosi was the highest-profile US official to head to Taiwan in years, defying stark threats from Beijing, which views the self-ruled island as its territory.

ASEAN called for ‘maximum restraint’ on Thursday after China angrily responded to United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s surprise visit to Taiwan.

ASEAN will not be ‘held hostage’ by Myanmar, minister reiterates after candid regional crisis talks.

China fired multiple missiles around Taiwan on Thursday as it launched unprecedented military drills a day after a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.

The 10-nation bloc of ASEAN, which is hosting a big international gathering this week, has pushed Myanmar to follow a peace "consensus" agreed last year.

Earlier in the day, Chinese military launched missiles from near Taiwan's Matsu islands.

The recovery in the central and northern stretches of the UNESCO world heritage-listed reef contrasted with the southern region, where there was a loss of coral cover due to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS) said in its annual report.

"USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are underway in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," a US Navy Seventh Fleet spokesperson said, quoted by Reuters.

Multiple gunshot incidents occur daily in the Big Apple.

In an interview with SCMP, the Ukrainian leader urged China to use its outsize political and economic influence over Russia to bring an end to the fighting.

Outgoing Colombian President Iván Duque speaks with The Jakarta Post’s M. Taufiqurrahman about his time in office and what he considers to be his legacy in this excerpt of an interview in late July.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations made the remarks in a statement from foreign ministers after its chair, Cambodia, had urged all sides to de-escalate tension over Taiwan.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers urged restraint Thursday as China readied massive military drills off Taiwan, warning the situation risked spiraling into "open conflicts".

The two-week Indonesian and the United States joint military exercise Garuda Shield officially began with an opening ceremony in South Sumatra on Wednesday, with a dozen nations participating in or observing for the first time the annual event and amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Indonesia has called on the United States and China to de-escalate tensions in the Indo-Pacific following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan, which has angered Beijing.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the potential for Pelosi's visit with counterpart Wang Yi during a G20 meeting in Bali that lasted more than five hours, and said any such trip would be entirely Pelosi's decision and independent of the US government.

Pelosi's dramatic late-night flight to Taipei, defying threats of reprisals by China, looks set to dominate the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, which had been expected to tackle the bloody crisis in Myanmar.

The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since the military's power grab last year, with more than 2,100 people killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitor.

Sergei Lavrov arrived at the military-built capital Naypyidaw "for a working visit," Russia's foreign affairs ministry said on Twitter.

The trip by Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency and the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, has ignited a diplomatic firestorm.

The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Turkey's coast on Tuesday and is due to be inspected on Wednesday. 

Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng voiced "strong protests" over Pelosi's visit to the democratic self-governing island, which China considers part of its territory, during his talk with Ambassador Nicholas Burns.

The 10-member bloc had been pushing for Myanmar to adhere to a five-point peace plan it agreed to last year and has condemned the recent execution of four democracy activists by the junta.

In its submission for an upcoming conference, the Indonesian government said it “notes with concern the potential consequences” that transferring nuclear submarine technology could have for the global non-proliferation regime.

ASEAN has involved its human rights body in efforts to ensure Myanmar complies with a regional consensus to end its ongoing political crisis, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said ahead of crunch talks on Wednesday.