In a move reshaping the contours of global cooperation, the inaugural summit of China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has emerged as an important moment for the Global South.

Against a volatile international landscape and sluggish global growth, the establishment of the trilateral summit creates a platform for exchange and a mechanism for cooperation, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on May 27 while addressing the event.

The summit was not only a milestone in Asian regional cooperation but also a declaration of the Global South's joint response to instability, Du Lan, Deputy Director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told Beijing Review. By unleashing economic complementarity, deepening strategic synergy and safeguarding shared interests, trilateral cooperation will provide the Global South with more certainties and developmental momentum, she added.

The Global South refers to the nations of the world that are considered to have a relatively low level of economic and industrial development and are typically located to the south of more industrialized nations.

Dynamic regions

The 10-member ASEAN, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, the GCC, consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and China collectively boast a combined GDP of nearly $25 trillion and a market of over 2 billion people, offering vast opportunities to synergize their markets and promote cross-regional investment, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in his opening remarks at the summit.

The summit has brought together three of the "most dynamic regions in the Global South at a time of heightened global trade tensions," Joanne Lin Weiling, a senior fellow and co-coordinator of the ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told newspaper China Daily.

China, the world's second largest economy, boasts a comprehensive industrial system and strong technological innovation capabilities. The ASEAN nations have risen to become the world's fifth largest economy, with a youthful demographic structure and digital transformation potential making them a key growth engine. GCC countries, holding the world's largest crude oil and natural gas reserves, a per-capita GDP that is three times the global average, and capital strength representing one third of global sovereign wealth funds, serve as pivotal forces in energy and investment. They exhibit great economic complementarity—combining China's technology and production capacity, ASEAN's resources and markets, and the GCC's capital and energy—unlocking tremendous growth opportunities, according to Du.

Both ASEAN and GCC countries are key partners in the Belt and Road Initiative (a China-proposed initiative to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes—Ed.). China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years, achieving remarkable cooperation in trade, investment and infrastructure development, with industrial chains evolving from complementarity to deep integration, she explained.

China-GCC cooperation in energy, trade, and other areas has also deepened, with free trade agreement negotiations nearing completion after multiple rounds. In December 2022, the first China-GCC Summit was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, followed by the inaugural ASEAN-GCC Summit the next year. This strong history of collaboration laid a solid foundation for the current summit and trilateral cooperation, Du added.

"I am confident that ASEAN, the GCC and China can draw upon our unique attributes and shape a future that is more connected, more resilient and more prosperous," Anwar said.

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-regional openness, forging a model of cooperation across different development stages, and fostering a model of cross-civilization integration.

Crown Prince Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, which holds the rotating presidency of the GCC, and other ASEAN and GCC leaders attended 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 Anwar.

Related 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, according to the statement.

An alternative

Amid global economic headwinds and mounting uncertainties, Li said 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 at large.

The summit "took on added urgency" as the three sides "face the ripple effects of an increasingly fragmented global economy," Lin stressed, adding that it "sent a clear message that ASEAN, the GCC and China are looking to build new economic partnerships that are not beholden to traditional power centers."

It signaled "a proactive shift toward shaping an alternative, multipolar economic architecture grounded in Global South solidarity," Nawazish Mirza, a professor of finance at the Excelia Business School in France, told China Daily. He pointed out that it also strategically re-positioned the three parties to diversify their markets and mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.

"As some countries are becoming more protectionist and isolationist, the summit was a good initiative and effort to counter these emerging trends," Lee Pei May, a political expert at the International Islamic University Malaysia, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. "It proves that economies can complement rather than compete with one another, easing the worries that countries can only develop if they turn inward."

The event provides the Global South with a complementary, non-exclusive and development-focused multilateral template, serving as a robust defense of multilateralism and a collective solution for these countries to resist external risks, Du said.

This cooperation model, based on comparative advantages and centered on economic growth, livelihood improvement and sustainable development—rather than ideological confrontation—embodies the wisdom of non-zero-sum games, she continued.

While the trilateral format is still new, it also shows a growing appetite for the Global South-led cooperation that can buffer against external shocks and promote more equitable economic integration, Lin said.

This "encourages other regions to pursue similar models of collaboration," Andrew Kam Jia Yi, a senior researcher with the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies at the National University of Malaysia, told Xinhua, adding that 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.

Before attending the ASEAN-China-GCC Summit in Malaysia, Li paid an official visit to Indonesia from May 24 to 26.

During talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on May 25, Li urged China and Indonesia to make the pie of cooperation bigger, strengthen industrial integration and safeguard free trade.

China is willing to work with Indonesia to enhance the alignment of development strategies and deepen high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, especially by optimizing and strengthening landmark projects, he said, urging the two sides to further enhance the "golden brand" of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway. BR

(Print Edition Title: Teaming Up Works Best)             

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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