BANGKOK – South-east Asia’s joint effort to tackle global issues such as an energy crisis caused by the Iran war is complicated by internal friction over tension between Thailand and Cambodia and civil war in Myanmar, a senior Cambodian diplomat said on May 6.

Asia is the world’s top oil importing region and the Iran war has sent many of the 11 members of the ASEAN bloc scrambling for alternatives to insulate their economies from the worst of the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict.

“ASEAN needs to put our house in order and sort things out as soon as possible,” Cambodia’s envoy to the Association of South-east Asian Nations, Dr Kung Phoak, told Reuters ahead of a summit of the bloc in the Philippines this week.

The South-east Asian conflicts will figure in discussions at a leaders’ summit on May 8, as ASEAN members push for the ratification of an oil-sharing deal to strengthen regional resilience in energy.

“The sooner we can get all these problems resolved, I think it enhances our ability and gives us more time to think about what we can do more, and not just to respond to the (energy) crisis, but also to prepare ASEAN for the future,” he added.