The Inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit: Economic Aspirations Amid Strategic Ambiguity

Malaysia's ASEAN Chairmanship logo is pictured in front of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur on 15 May 2025 | Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP

In an article by Fulcrum, Sufian Jusoh and Joanne Lin assess Malaysia’s bold initiative to host the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Summit, exploring its strategic rationale, economic potential, and the implications for ASEAN’s centrality in a shifting global order.

It will bring together leaders from ASEAN, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), and China for a formal trilateral gathering. While ASEAN already maintains institutional relationships with both China and the GCC, this summit, initiated by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, ushers in an unusual diplomatic configuration whose long-term implications remain uncertain.

Malaysia’s bold move is underpinned by strategic calculus. By convening this trilateral platform, it aims to elevate its international profile, expand economic ties with the Middle East and China, and assert leadership within ASEAN amid a shifting global order. The declining influence of the US in the Global South, coupled with increasingly polarising US policies in the Middle East, has opened space for alternative South-South alignments. The imposition of draconian tariffs on Southeast Asian exports under Trump’s second term has further underscored the urgency for the region to diversify beyond traditional Western markets. According to Mr Anwar, “it is about ensuring ASEAN’s strategic relevance in a multipolar world”.

There are at least three rationales for the trilateral summit: promoting ASEAN Centrality, creating a new South-South economic alliance, and forming a new partnership to neutralise the geoeconomic impact of the tariff war.