India, July 22 -- Southeast Asia's top diplomats opened three days of talks in the Philippine Capital on Tuesday with an agenda topped by their most daunting security problems and a backdrop of unfolding crises led by the resurging war in Iran and a violent skirmish in the disputed South China Sea.

The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met behind closed doors in Manila before issuing a joint statement calling for an immediate halt to fighting in the Middle East and the full and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. "We expressed serious concern over the rapidly evolving situation in West Asia, particularly the renewed hostilities involving the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran," the...