49th ASEAN Summit Opens in Manila, Digital Economy Framework Signed

The Digital Economy Framework Agreement is the substantive item here: its handover to the secretariat, rather than any summit declaration, marks the point where regional digital trade rules move toward implementation, with the stated early-2027 effect date the timeline to track. Timor-Leste's full membership expands the bloc to eleven and changes the bloc's internal balance, though its practical weight in digital and energy discussions remains unclear. Whether the framework's implementation timeline holds, and how the new member integrates into existing cooperation tracks, are the open questions.