Amid escalating global challenges, China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have forged a groundbreaking path in cross-regional cooperation.
In a historic move, they convened a landmark trilateral summit in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia — ASEAN’s current chair — marking a bold step toward collective resilience, economic synergy, and a shared vision for prosperity.
At the inaugural ASEAN-China-GCC Summit on Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang called on the three parties to set a global benchmark in openness, development cooperation and cross-civilization integration.
His call comes at a critical juncture, as rising protectionism and escalating geopolitical tensions threaten to fracture the international order.
Amid global economic headwinds and mounting uncertainties, Li noted that by strengthening connectivity and collaboration, the three sides can forge a vibrant economic circle and a powerful engine for growth, which holds profound significance not only for their respective prosperity but also for advancing peace and development across Asia and the world.
“As some countries are becoming more protectionist and isolationist, the summit was a good initiative and effort to counter these emerging trends,” said Lee Pei May, a political expert at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
“The summit proves that economies can complement rather than compete with one another, easing the worries that countries can only develop if they turn inward,” Lee added.
At the tripartite gathering, Li urged all sides to work together to build a model of global cooperation and development in three aspects — creating a model of cross-region openness, forging a model of cooperation across different development stages, and fostering a model of cross-civilization integration.
At the summit, the leaders committed to further strengthening Belt and Road cooperation, with a focus on deepening ties in connectivity, trade, industrial and supply chains, agriculture, energy, finance, and the digital economy. They pledged to accelerate trilateral integration, fostering robust, inclusive, and sustainable development for all.
The summit adopted a joint statement, which was hailed as “detailed, elaborate” and a strong message of trilateral solidarity and cooperation by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
In the joint statement, the relevant countries acknowledged their joint efforts to promote closer cooperation between ASEAN, GCC and China, and China’s vision to build a closer ASEAN-China community with a shared future and a China-Arab community with a shared future in the new era.
Andrew Kam Jia Yi, senior research fellow with the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies at the National University of Malaysia, said the summit highlights how the strengths of each party can complement one another.
“The GCC’s energy and financial resources, ASEAN’s growing consumer base, and China’s technological and financial capacities together create more resilient supply chains and boost food and energy security for all,” he said.
Following the summit, Li also delivered remarks at the opening ceremony of the ASEAN-China-GCC Economic Forum 2025.
He emphasized China’s commitment to energizing trilateral cooperation through its high-quality development, pledging to firmly expand high-level opening up, promote mutual reinforcement between domestic and international circulations and share the opportunities of China’s development with countries of ASEAN and GCC, and enterprises from around the world.
The trilateral cooperation mechanism not only fosters collaborative agreements across regions, but creates a novel platform of communication and dialogue for the Global South countries to closely coordinate on regional and international affairs and amplify their voices on the global stage.
The joint statement recognizes the need to strengthen confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, and reaffirms the countries’ resolve to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced, and beneficial to their peoples and future generations.
During talks with other leaders on the sidelines of the summit, the Chinese premier voiced China’s readiness to push for a greater role of the Global South in improving global governance.
In his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Li said that China looks to strengthen communication and cooperation with Vietnam and jointly protect the common interests of the Global South countries.
During their meeting a day before the summit, Li told Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, crown prince of Kuwait, that China is committed to strengthening communication and coordination with Kuwait through various multilateral platforms to push for more just and equitable global governance and a more harmonious, stable and prosperous world.
The trilateral summit “encourages other regions to pursue similar models of collaboration,” Kam said.
“It is a sign of growing solidarity, where countries of the Global South are working together to shape their own futures, assert their priorities on the global stage, and build a more equitable and stable world order from the ground up,” the scholar added
