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International trade

Asean-GCC-China Summit: A Historic Opportunity for Stable Trade Governance

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The Asean-GCC-China Summit, scheduled for May 26-27 2025, marks a significant convergence of three major economies, representing over 2.5 billion people and controlling vital maritime choke points. This summit holds promise in institutionalizing a new form of multilateralism, rooted in necessity, and addressing the urgent need for stable trade governance. The stakes are high, as the global economy faces fragmentation, coercion, and protectionism, while the multilateral trading system is under siege.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Asean-GCC-China Summit aims to redefine how the global economy is stabilized in an age of fragmentation and coercion, promoting a new trade order anchored in interregional pluralism.
  • The convergence of Asean, the GCC, and China represents over 2.5 billion people, controlling vital maritime choke points, and is deeply embedded in overlapping networks of energy, infrastructure, digital platforms, and manufacturing ecosystems.
  • The summit's real promise lies in its potential to create a new form of multilateralism rooted not in ideology but in necessity, addressing pressing issues like tariff predictability, supply chain resilience, and a future-ready digital economy.
  • The stakes are high, as the global economy faces fragmentation, coercion, and protectionism, while the multilateral trading system is under siege.
  • The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been sidelined by economic nationalism, while unilateral tariffs and weaponized sanctions dictate the flows of goods, capital, and data.
  • The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which already includes China and Asean, offers a promising model that could be expanded to include GCC countries seeking greater diversification and integration beyond hydrocarbons.
  • The summit must create permanent institutional mechanisms, including standing trade coordination councils, trilateral dispute resolution protocols, and joint emergency frameworks for future supply chain disruptions.
  • China's participation offers a way to demonstrate that its future lies not in domination but in integration, while the GCC can transition from oil diplomacy to platform diplomacy.
  • Asean, long prized for its centrality, can prove that neutrality does not mean passivity and that economic interdependence can be transformed into strategic agency.
  • Malaysia, as the host, stands at the confluence of these ambitions, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's invitation to Chinese Premier Li Qiang to join the summit showing a willingness to serve as a convener of new coalitions.

Statistics:

  • The Asean-GCC-China convergence represents over 2.5 billion people.
  • The Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Hormuz are two vital maritime choke points controlled by these three economies.
  • The last five years have proven that no region can navigate economic shocks in isolation, with microchip shortages and food inflation being pressing issues.
  • The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) already includes China and Asean, offering a promising model for integration.

Sources:

  • "Malay Mail"
  • *Phar Kim Beng, a former Harvard fellow and a professor of Asean Studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia*

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