Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Malaysia’s initiative to establish the ASEAN-GCC-China summit underscores a long-standing desire to connect past and present.
The inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit was held on 27 May 2025 in Kuala Lumpur. The Summit, one of the signature initiatives pushed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2025, marked the first step of the institutionalisation of the trilateral, cross-regional forum between the ten-member (soon to be eleven-member) ASEAN, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), and China. The meeting attracted extensive media coverage. Some lauded it as a “significant diplomatic first” engendering immense economic opportunities and geostrategic potential, while others described it as “more symbolism than substance.” But the initiative can best be explained by Malaysia’s long-standing aspirations to become a bridge between different regions and civilisations.
In materialising the newest forum in the ever-enlarging circle of ASEAN-led mechanisms, the role of Malaysia’s leaders and national interests are both important. A more fundamental driver overlooked by many commentaries, however, is the imperative of connecting the past and the present. Malaysian elites’ worldviews, as observed by diplomatic historian Anthony Milner, have been shaped by a memory of pre-modern sultanate diplomacy, in which a small state such as Melaka in the 15th Century actively asserted agency. This helped to shape the regional order and positioned itself as a vital connecting point in trade flowing from China through the Malay Archipelago to India, Persia and Arabia. This memory often manifests in modern-day aspirations where Malaysia sees itself serving as a “bridging linchpin” between crucial regions and sub-regions. This takes the form of promoting institutions and integration alongside its fellow ASEAN members and dialogue partners near and far, in a bid to bridge interests, bind commitments, and build cooperation.
These are not empty ambitions; rather, Malaysia’s decades-long regional activism alongside regional partners in initiating and institutionalising has influenced and emboldened some ASEAN-led mechanisms. These include the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) and the East Asia Summit (EAS). Both fora were kickstarted during Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 1997 and 2005, respectively. Reviving the centuries-old historical idea of connecting Southeast Asia with the Middle East and China (and potentially other economic powerhouses when conditions are ripe) entails present and future importance, given unprecedented global geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges.
The imperative of reviving the historical trade routes and people-to-people connectivity, however, should not be seen as Malaysia (or ASEAN’s) shift to “alternative” South-South alignments. Rather, actualising the trilateral mechanism is one of the “additional” layers of alignments and partnerships propelled by the emerging convergence of interests amid the fast-changing global environment. The same can be said about Malaysia’s decision to participate in the BRICS+, a non-Western and also a non-ASEAN group. The fact that the decision was made around the same time as Indonesia as well as Thailand and Vietnam opted to join BRICS — as full members and partner countries, respectively — suggests that the timing is no coincidence. There are converging rationales of pursuing multi-alignments (the means) for non-alignment (the ends), even and especially as each of the Southeast Asian states continues to promote “ASEAN centrality” via forging inclusive partnerships with more circles of groups and countries.
In the wake of the intensifying big power rivalries and growing global uncertainties, ASEAN more than ever needs to create wider connectivity and deeper cooperation within and beyond East Asia to help offset the impending decline in the region’s decades-long economic links with the US.
Leadership also matters. Anwar started to promote the trilateral summit proposal back in 2023. In November 2023, less than two weeks after Saudi Arabia hosted the inaugural ASEAN-GCC Summit in Riyadh, Anwar communicated with Beijing about Malaysia’s intention to convene the first ASEAN-GCC-China Summit during Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2025 (this is gleaned from the author’s interviews with individuals familiar with the matter). China responded positively in early 2024. Later that year, when Anwar attended the ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in Vientiane in October 2024, he unveiled the plan to host the trilateral summit in 2025, which will “open new economic opportunities” for ASEAN and partners. The following month, during a courtesy call with President Xi Jinping, Anwar reportedly said he had secured agreement from his ASEAN colleagues, “with a full consensus of all 10 countries” to embark on the ASEAN-GCC-China cooperation. In his speech at Peking University during the same trip, Anwar remarked: “By linking ASEAN, China, and the GCC, we can build a bridge between East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, enabling deeper economic, cultural, and strategic ties among our regions”. This would contribute to cooperation on matters such as “energy security, sustainable development and economic diversification [emphasis added].”
The statement, along with Anwar’s opening remarks at the trilateral summit, reflected Anwar’s desire to link and leverage on the culturally pluralistic and economically vibrant civilisations across Asia. This is among the ambitions which can be traced back to his 1996 book, The Asian Renaissance. The Palestinian cause is another driver. It was one of the major issues receiving significant attention in the 27 May Joint Statement of the trilateral summit. It has been high on Anwar’s domestic and external agenda, and found convergence with the GCC leaders.
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to attribute the ASEAN-GCC-China initiative entirely to Anwar. Regionalism has been central to Malaysia’s diplomatic DNA well before Anwar, and will likely remain beyond Anwar. Other ASEAN core members have also played leading roles in advancing ASEAN-based or ASEAN-plus multilateralism at different junctures. Beyond APT and EAS, ASEAN has, under different chairmanships, formed the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM)-Plus, institutionalised the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), and pushed through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
The challenge is that inter-regional forums are easy to establish but hard to sustain robustly. Examples in point are the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), launched in 1996 and 1999, respectively.
The unprecedented, ongoing polycrisis at the global level, however, might have engendered unprecedented demands for such cross-regional platforms as the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit. In the wake of the intensifying big power rivalries and growing global uncertainties, ASEAN more than ever needs to create wider connectivity and deeper cooperation within and beyond East Asia to further diversify and help offset the impending decline in the region’s decades-long economic links with the US. This is done with an eye to hedge and mitigate the looming risks.
More markets and more partners, therefore, must be connected and cultivated to help mitigate shocks, maximise possibilities, and multiply existing economic synergies. The Joint Statement of the Trilateral Summit and the ASEAN-GCC Joint Declaration on Economic Cooperation highlighted multiple possibilities, including a projected convergence involving three interconnected tracks: the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) 3.0 Upgrade, the ASEAN-GCC FTA, and the China-GCC FTA. Trade diversification and economic synergies, over time, serve to converge parallel development and diplomatic tracks, thereby strengthening regional and inter-regional resilience.
2025/235
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.