(Photo: baoquocte.vn)

The position, based on a paper circulated by Indonesia to the nine other ASEAN countries, will be adopted when the ASEAN foreign ministers gather for a three-day meeting in Singapore starting Thursday.

It is in response to the launching by the US of its own concept of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative.

According to a draft of a joint communique that ASEAN foreign ministers will issue in Singapore, the ministers want to reinforce an ASEAN-centric regional architecture that is open, transparent, inclusive, and rule-based.