2025年5月25日，华东师范大学亚太研究中心执行主任陈弘接受《环球时报》英文版采访，谈东盟—中国—海合会。
China, ASEAN, GCC countries to hold inaugural joint summit
Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 25, 2025. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese Premier Li Qiang is paying an official visit to Indonesia from Saturday to Monday at the invitation of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and will attend the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council)-China Summit in Kuala Lumpur from Monday to Wednesday at the invitation of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, ASEAN's rotating chair, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Cooperation between ASEAN, China and the GCC countries will unlock immense potential for multilateral cooperation across sectors and inject stability into the world economy, analysts said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Sunday.
Li said that China is ready to work with Indonesia to elevate political mutual trust and strategic coordination between the two countries to a higher level, Xinhua reported.
During Prabowo's China visit in November last year, the presidents of the two countries reached important consensus on building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future that has regional and global influence, which has taken bilateral ties to a new historical high and opened up broad prospects for cooperation, Li said.
The Chinese side stands ready to consolidate cooperation in the "five pillars" of politics, economy, people-to-people and cultural exchange, maritime affairs and security, jointly address risks and challenges, and better promote common development, Li noted.
Li further pointed out that China is willing to work with Indonesia to enhance the alignment of development strategies, and deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, while both sides should enhance market connectivity and industrial collaboration, improve the level of trade and investment facilitation, and expand cooperation in areas such as finance, new energy, digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI), aerospace and the ocean.
At present, the rise of unilateralism and protectionism has severely disrupted the international economic and trade order, Li noted, adding that confronting these risks and challenges, solidarity and cooperation remain the only viable path forward.
For his part, Prabowo said that Indonesia is willing to work with China to follow through on the consensus on maritime joint development. He also said Indonesia stands ready to work with China to speed up consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the region.
Following the meeting, the two sides signed a number of MoUs and reached cooperation agreements in such areas as tourism, exports of agricultural products, traditional medicine, investment, strategic commerce and media.
Addressing the Indonesia-China Business Reception 2025 on Saturday, Li urged China and Indonesia to make the pie of cooperation bigger, strengthen industrial integration and safeguard free trade.
During his speech at the Indonesia-China Business Reception, Prabowo underscored the importance of economic relations between Indonesia and China as a long-term strategic partnership that delivers benefits, not just for the two countries, but for the wider Asian region, Indonesia news agency Antara reported.
On this occasion, Prabowo also expressed his respect and appreciation to China for its active role in supporting developing countries, including Indonesia. "I would like to express my respect to the people of China who have consistently supported the interests of developing countries, consistently opposed oppression, imperialism, colonialism, and apartheid," he remarked, Antara reported.
Prabowo extended an invitation to Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Indonesia, emphasizing not only natural resource downstreaming but also the crucial science and technology sector, the report said.
Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun told the Global Times on Sunday that President Prabowo's message indicates the importance of this comprehensive strategic partnership that needs to bring peace, prosperity and stability to the region and to the world.
"How do we do this? Of course one important area is to continue strengthening the economic, trade and Investment cooperation," Djauhari Oratmangun told the Global Times. "We invite more investment not only in downstream natural resources, but also in the fields of education, health, tourism, science and technology. We also can strengthen our trade, supply chain cooperation, as production partners for the global market."
Inaugural trilateral summit
After his trip to Indonesia, Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit in Kuala Lumpur from Monday to Wednesday.
This trilateral cooperation initiative emerges from a time of uncertainty, particularly from the US government, with its announcement of reciprocal tariffs further exacerbating this uncertainty, Ge Hongliang, vice dean of the ASEAN College at Guangxi Minzu University, told the Global Times.
Against this backdrop, the summit aims to synergize the complementary strengths of the three parties: ASEAN as a vital production hub and emerging market, the GCC as an energy and financial powerhouse, and China as a consumption driver with an integrated industrial chain. Ge said this cooperation framework not only bolsters regional economic resilience but also mitigates policy uncertainties stemming from the US.
Commenting on the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit to be held for the first time, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry, said on Thursday that both ASEAN and GCC countries are emerging economies in Asia, important members of the Global South, and important partners in the Belt and Road cooperation.
Under the current international and regional circumstances, it is of great significance for the three parties to jointly discuss plans for solidarity, cooperation, development and prosperity, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation across regions, she said.
China looks forward to expanding practical cooperation with ASEAN and GCC countries in various fields, leveraging complementary advantages and achieving win-win results, jointly safeguarding the multilateral trading system and defending the common interests of the Global South, Mao noted.
1+1+1>3
Chen Hong, executive director, Asia Pacific Studies Centre, East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Sunday that ASEAN-GCC-China summit represents an upgraded model of regional cooperation. This initiative engages regional organizations to establish a new cooperative framework. "This model generates synergistic effects of 1+1+1>3, offering a decentralized, multilateral approach to global economic governance that contrasts with Western-dominated systems,"Chensaid.
This innovative approach also pioneers a new model of global governance through interconnected regional systems. Through economic corridors and trans-regional connectivity networks, it binds Southeast Asia and the Middle East with China's huge market and production capacity, while also enhancing their autonomy in international logistics and energy transportation,Chen said.
Moreover, with substantial shares of global GDP and population, the three sides represent major Global South stakeholders and can align positions to reform international trade rules and amplify developing nations' voice on the global stage,Chen noted.
The expert added that since several ASEAN and GCC members have joined or approached BRICS and SCO memberships, the summit could bridge these mechanisms and foster institutional synergy.
Julia Roknifard, a senior lecturer at Taylor's University in Malaysia, said China is an anchor for ASEAN-GCC cooperation. "China has already had a transformative effect on ASEAN and the wider Middle East, including GCC states, through its various infrastructure, trade and development initiatives, particularly through the Belt and Road Initiative guided by the Global Development Initiative," she said, per Xinhua.
The expert called the trilateral cooperation platform a "Golden Triangle" of resources, manufacturing and consumers, which will continue to power the global economy despite severe trade disruptions due to recent US tariff policy.
China enjoys strong ties with both ASEAN and GCC countries.
As neighbors, China and ASEAN had by 2024 been each other's largest trading partner for five consecutive years. Bilateral trade value soared from less than $8 billion in 1991 to nearly $1 trillion in 2024. In the latest development, China and 10 ASEAN countries have fully completed negotiations on the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, a milestone in bilateral trade cooperation that will inject greater momentum and stability into world economy, Xinhua reported.
With the GCC, trade between China and GCC countries in 2024 reached over $288 billion. Cooperation in investment, energy and green transformation is on the rise, thanks to the growing mutual trust and the high degree of complementarity in their respective economies.
