The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), China and the 10-member Southeast Asian Nations Association (ASEAN) agreed to “make a unified and collective path” after the meeting in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The Alternative Center for Global Power has been fully demonstrated in a world where U.S. President Donald Trump is threatened by severe tariffs and rising economic uncertainty, with the GCC and China participating on Tuesday at the ASEAN summit of the organization’s first trilateral meeting.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the Gulf Cooperation Commission - including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - Chinese and ASEAN members Indonesia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Philippines, Brepis, Blair, Cambodia, Laos and Maine, are good at cooperating economic cooperation.

The signatories said the main cooperation in the cooperation would be to promote free trade, adding that they "introduced forward the early completion of the GCC-China Free Trade Agreement negotiations" and upgraded the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area.

“We reaffirm our collective determination to work hand in hand to unlock the full potential of our partnership and to ensure that our cooperation can be translated into a tangible benefit to our people and society,” they said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (currently ASEAN country, chaired and chaired the summit) told the press conference that the United States remains a major market, while also noting that ASEAN, the GCC and China collectively represent a total gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.487 billion and a total population of approximately US$21.5 billion.

“This collective scale provides a huge opportunity to synergize our markets, deepen innovation and promote cross-regional investment,” Anwar said.

The Prime Minister continued to reject the proposal that the ASEAN group would be too tilted towards China, stressing that the regional group remains committed to maintaining balanced participation with all major powers, including the United States.

James Chin, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia, told Al Jazeera that the tripartite meeting is particularly important to China, which is a "platform given that the United States is not here."

Chin said ASEAN and the GCC "have seen China as a global power."

"The Gulf is very rich, ASEAN is a tiger, China..."

Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, who attended the summit, said Beijing was ready to work with the Gulf Cooperation Gas Corporation (GCC) and Asean "based on mutual respect and equality."

He will work with “ASEAN and the GCC to strengthen coherence in development strategies, increase macro-policy coordination and deepen cooperation in industrial expertise.”

Mohamed Nazri Bin Abdul Aziz, a former Malaysian in the United States, said China “quickly filled the vacuum of global leaders” in many countries following Trump’s tariff threat.

Nazri said that for ASEAN, China and Gulf countries, the economic outlook looks bright, where economies experience high growth rates while the United States and the European Union face stagnation.

"The Gulf is very rich, ASEAN is a tiger, China ... I can't even imagine where the future is," Nazri said.

Jaideep Singh, an analyst at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said trade between ASEAN and Gulf Cooperation Council countries has been growing rapidly.

As of 2024, the total trade between ASEAN and Gulf countries was approximately US$63 billion, making GCC the fifth largest external trading partner of the regional group, while Malaysia's trade with GCC increased by 60% from 2019 to 2024.

Singh said that in terms of FDI, as of 2023, FDI from ASEAN GCC countries totaled about $5 billion, of which $1.5 billion was spent only on Malaysia.

However, the United States, China, Singapore and the European Union still hold a stake in foreign direct investment in Malaysia's manufacturing and services.

We are still the largest export market in ASEAN

Economists say that even if China and ASEAN trade development develop, the United States remains a huge market for regional countries.

Carmelo Ferlito, CEO of Think Tank, based in Malaysia and Indonesia, said that in early 2024, the U.S. made China the largest export market in ASEAN, and the group's exports were destined to be nearly 4% since 2018.

"The United States is also the largest source of ASEAN's cumulative foreign direct investment, with total stocks reaching nearly $480 billion in 2023, almost twice the U.S.'s combined investment in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan," Felito said.

Israel's war against Gaza was also highlighted at the ASEAN-GCC-China meeting on Tuesday.

The representative condemned the attacks on civilians and called for an enduring ceasefire throughout the Palestinian territory, unhindered provision of fuel, food, essential services and medicine.

The Joint Communiqué supports a solution to the conflict between the two countries and calls for the release of captives and arbitrarily forgotten people and end the “illegal existence of the State of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

The civil war in Myanmar was also the focus of talks at the summit of ASEAN members on Tuesday, calling for an extension and expansion of the ceasefire in terms of war, announced after the earthquake that hit the country in March. The ceasefire will run out by the end of May. But despite the alleged temporary cessation of combat, the military regime has launched repeated air attacks on civilians in the country.

Zachary Abuza, a professor of Southeast Asian politics and security at the Washington-based National War College, said that although Prime Minister Anwar may want to resolve the conflict (in his role as ASEAN president), the military rulers in Myanmar are “not a good faith actor” in peace talks.

"The military has absolutely no interest in anything similar to a power sharing agreement," he said.