Top diplomats from all Southeast Asian countries will sit down for talks over the South China Sea issue, the political developments in Myanmar, and the Thailand-Cambodia conflict, among other concerns, on Thursday, Jan. 29, as the Philippines is hosting this year's annual meet for the regional bloc.

All foreign ministers of the 11-member Association Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have confirmed their attendance for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' (AMM) Retreat in Cebu, according to ASEAN spokesman for ASEAN Matters Dominic Xavier Imperial.

The actual AMM Retreat will be held on Jan. 29—a day after the Preparatory ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (Prep-SOM) for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' (AMM) Retreat, where high-ranking diplomats gather for related talks ahead of their ministers' meeting.

General situation in the South China Sea and the developments on the crafting of the Code of Conduct, which has not had any momentous progress for years, are set to be discussed by region's top diplomats against the backdrop of the continued maritime tension between the this year's ASEAN host, the Philippines, and China, the bloc's dialogue partner.

This year, ASEAN members and China "are all on board in terms of reaching a conclusion of the negotiations," said Imperial in a press briefing on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

"So, that is one thing to highlight... all the parties are bent on being able to hopefully, to endeavor concluding the negotiations within the 2026 timeline," he said.

Asked what outcome the Philippines is expecting, Imperial said "it's hard to say."

"But the important thing here is that when the parties sit down to do the negotiations, to continue the negotiations, what’s important is we will have some kind of movement as to the last agreements that we had in the previous meetings," he said.

"We’ll be happy to have a movement of course and I would also like to underscore that the Philippines as chair is really facilitating the progress of the discussions in terms of encouraging more meetings so that we’ll be able to at least endeavor to conclude the negotiations or the discussions within the timeline that was given under the guidelines which was set back in 2023," he added.

The Five-Point Consensus, an ASEAN-led consensus that was made in 2021 to contain escalation of political tension in Myanmar following a military takeover of the government, is also up for discussion.

With a still-contested government, Myanmar will be represented by its Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, as confirmed by Imperial. 

The border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, a long-running conflict that once again reignited in 2025 and left hundreds of casualties, will be tackled if it will be raised by the ministers.

"Certainly, that will also be part of the discussion," Imperial said.

The foreign ministers' discussion will be "very broad," he added.

"When we talk about regional and global development, it’s actually very broad and there’s a reason why this retreat is called a retreat," he said, noting that the retreat will allow "for a very candid discussion among the foreign ministers."

"And when you have that kind of format then all the foreign ministers are actually free to raise whatever concern they have that is related to regional and global developments," he said.