ASEAN must deepen digital ties, harden energy security and keep every door open, PM Wong says

What did Singapore’s prime minister ask ASEAN to do in Manila?

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told Southeast Asia’s leaders on Sunday that their bloc must deepen cooperation in the digital economy, strengthen its energy resilience and broaden its network of partners, as the 49th ASEAN Summit opened in Manila against a backdrop of war in the Gulf, tariff pressure from Washington and rivalry between the United States and China. Speaking at the plenary session at the Philippine International Convention Center, Wong said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had answered a more contested world by coming together since its last meeting in May, and urged it to press ahead with “a substantial agenda of practical cooperation”.

“Looking ahead, we can expect more turbulence and storms, but so long as we remain cohesive and united, I’m sure we can continue to navigate our path forward and emerge stronger,” Wong said. He pointed to Saturday’s signing of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement as proof that the bloc can still deliver binding rules, then set out three tasks for the days ahead: make digital trade seamless, make energy shocks survivable, and keep ASEAN open to every major power rather than becoming the ground for their fights.

What is already agreed, and what is on the table?

The Digital Economy Framework Agreement, known as DEFA, was signed on Saturday by the bloc’s economic ministers at the ASEAN Economic Community Council meeting, with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong signing for his country. It is the first legally binding region-wide digital economy agreement of its kind, setting common rules for digital trade, cross-border data flows and electronic payments across all 11 member states. Negotiations took nearly three years and concluded in May; the pact is expected to enter into force in early 2027 and is projected to double the region’s digital economy from US$1 trillion to US$2 trillion by 2030.

On energy, Wong called on every member state to ratify the ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement swiftly, so the bloc can share oil and gas in a crisis, and to prioritise the ASEAN Power Grid, the long-running project to connect national electricity networks and trade power across borders. Energy ministers agreed in October on an enhanced memorandum for the grid. Singapore takes over the rotating ASEAN chairmanship from the Philippines at the summit’s closing ceremony on Tuesday, when Wong will unveil his chairmanship theme for 2027.

What remains undecided after Sunday’s plenary?

No timetable was given for ratifying the petroleum agreement, and it is not clear how many of the 11 members have completed their domestic procedures, what the power grid will cost, who will finance its cross-border links, or when the first electricity will flow between national grids. The digital pact’s promise of seamless payments is equally untested: Wong proposed a regional network of cross-border electronic payment systems, building on Singapore’s bilateral links with Malaysia and Thailand, but no date was set, and the rules for data, fraud and consumer protection have yet to be written in detail.

Beyond economics, the summit’s hardest files are unresolved. A code of conduct for the South China Sea has been negotiated with China since 2005, and although ten rounds of talks were held this year, analysts doubt one will be reached in Manila. Myanmar’s civil war continues despite the bloc’s five-point peace plan, and it is not known whether the renewed engagement announced on Sunday will move the junta. Nor is it clear what, if anything, the expected meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday will do about the tariff hikes of 10 to 12.5 percent imposed on the region.

Why does a digital pact matter to 694 million people?

ASEAN’s 11 members count nearly 694 million people, about 8.4 percent of humanity, and their economies run on trade, remittances and the movement of goods and workers. Common digital rules, if they work, would let a small business in Cebu sell to a customer in Chiang Mai and be paid the same day, and let a worker in Singapore send money home to Manila without losing a slice to fees and delays. That is the practical meaning of the pact’s US$2 trillion projection, and why Wong put payments first.

Energy is the other half of the stakes. The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia are among the most exposed to the disruption of Gulf oil and gas since the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran began, and Manila declared a state of national energy emergency in March. Millions of Southeast Asians live and work in the Middle East, and the bloc worries the conflict could spill into the Strait of Malacca, the narrow waterway between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore through which much of Asia’s energy passes. The green transition sharpens the same question, as leaders at the COP31 climate summit grapple with a world that has lost the 1.5°C target.

What is Wong really signalling about ASEAN’s place between giants?

Wong’s speech is best read as a small state’s doctrine for surviving a big-power century. ASEAN cannot outspend Washington or Beijing, nor impose decisions on its own members, so its leverage is cohesion itself: binding rules where it can agree them, shared infrastructure where it cannot, and open doors to everyone so that no single partner can dictate terms. “ASEAN has been the arena for proxy fights between major powers before. We have been through that difficult experience. We don’t want that to happen again,” he said, adding that the bloc should “reject zero-sum competition and engage with all major powers and ensure that they have stakes in a peaceful, open and inclusive region.”

The economics follow the geopolitics. A digital pact and a power grid are not only growth policies; they are hedges; ways to make the region less dependent on any one market, one fuel or one payment rail. The risk is execution: ASEAN’s record is long on frameworks and short on ratification, and the pact will be judged not by its signing ceremony but by whether a payment from Bangkok to Jakarta clears cheaply next year. Singapore’s chairmanship in 2027, which Wong will define on Tuesday, is where that test begins.

What happens if the digital bet pays off; or stalls?

If the pact works, the effects reach beyond trade. A regional payment network would cut the cost of the remittances millions of Southeast Asian workers send home, and cheaper, trusted digital rails would pull small firms into formal markets they cannot reach today. Wider access to artificial intelligence, which Wong named as a priority, could lift productivity across economies of small firms; or widen the gap between the bloc’s digital leaders and its laggards, if access and skills do not follow the rules.

If it stalls, the costs are equally concrete. A signed pact that member states do not ratify would join the petroleum agreement and the power grid on ASEAN’s shelf of unfinished business, and the bloc would face the next energy shock with the same fragmented defences. The wider danger is political: a region that cannot deliver shared rules drifts toward bilateral deals with the great powers, and the proxy fights Wong warned about return through the back door. Either way, the Manila summit will be remembered less for its speeches than for whether its signatures turn into systems.

What should we watch before Tuesday’s handover?

The summit runs through Tuesday, November 17. In the coming days Wong will meet leaders from Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, the United States and the United Nations, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres is in Manila for the ASEAN-UN summit. Security diplomacy runs alongside the economics: the Quad grouping is reported to be gathering in Manila as well. The week’s set-piece is the special summit with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, preceded by a one-on-one with Marcos, before Trump heads to China for the APEC meeting on November 18 and 19. At the closing ceremony Singapore takes the chair, and Wong will unveil his theme for 2027; the first test of whether Manila’s promises survive the handover.