MANILA -- Southeast Asia's top diplomats have opened their annual meeting at a convention and theater complex by Manila Bay without the usual security overkill.
Motorists were allowed through as joggers, cyclists and tennis players sweated under a cloudy sky.
Public traffic was only stopped when the foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, arrived mid-morning Saturday.
According to Metro Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde, President Rodrigo Duterte has shown disdain for security lockdowns that inconvenience the public. Still, police deployed more than 13,000 officers in the capital and declared no-fly and no-sail zones around the venue.
Topping the agenda are North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile tests, an attempt to temper South China Sea disputes and unease over a siege by pro-Islamic State group militants in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, which has dragged on for more than two months. (AP)
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