N. Korea, Marawi siege, sea feud top ASEAN summit worries
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Southeast Asia started banding its unwieldy cluster of fledgling democracies, monarchies and authoritarian regimes into an EU-like collective half a century ago, but the diverse region of 620 million people remains hampered by conflicts, poverty, human rights crises and other issues.
It has nevertheless evolved into an important arena of discourse, power plays and influence that gathers world leaders in annual summits.
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will mark the 10-nation bloc's 50th anniversary with handshakes, unity photo-ops and pageantry in a gala dinner on Sunday. They'll gather for two days of summitry under tight security in Manila starting Monday and meet world leaders led by President Donald Trump to tackle a slew of security worries.
