Kuala Lampur, April 22 -- East Asia's economic miracle has long been powered by a fragile assumption: that energy from West Asia will always flow uninterrupted. That assumption is now dangerously obsolete.

With approximately 84 per cent of crude oil and 83 per cent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from West Asia, East Asia-especially Asean-stands exposed to one of the most persistent and predictable vulnerabilities in modern geopolitics.

While the Philippines is the Chair of Asean and Related Summits this year, by the first quarter of 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Junior has had to call for a national emergency due to the energy and oil crisis.

The lesson of oil or energy crisis is not new. It has simply been ignored for too ...