Washington DC - Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said he was open to meeting with Chinese and Russian officials while in the Philippines for an annual ASEAN summit.

Rubio's attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering in Manila comes as the US seeks to counter China's growing influence and only days after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of election meddling.

"We'd be open to meeting with them," Rubio told reporters when asked if meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi or Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov were in the works.

"I would never tell you guys in a press conference what we would raise in meetings like that. Those are delicate matters," he added.

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Rubio met Wang on the sidelines of the ASEAN gathering in Kuala Lumpur last year, so it's not without precedent that a similar meeting would take place. The two also spoke by telephone following Trump's visit to China in the spring.

The Philippines trip, Rubio's first to the country as secretary of state, comes as regional allies are under economic strain caused by the rekindled US-Iran war.

In the same press conference, Rubio blasted Tehran for using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage, and urged countries to "step up" to protect global shipping.

He called ASEAN "our primary way of engaging the region", adding he would participate in a host of bilateral meetings, as well as sit-downs with fellow Quad members India, Japan, and Australia.