With the successful conclusion of an inaugural joint summit, the cooperation between China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has ushered in a new chapter.

The recently held 2025 ASEAN-GCC-China Summit marks a transformative moment in interregional cooperation, demonstrating how three dynamic economic blocs can synergize their strengths amidst global uncertainties. The vision of creating a model of opening up, development cooperation and cross-civilization integration reflects their commitment to multilateralism through concrete regional partnerships.

Themed "Synergizing Economic Opportunities Toward Shared Prosperity," the summit underscores the complementary nature of these regions. ASEAN's manufacturing prowess, China's technological and infrastructure capabilities, and GCC's energy resources form a perfect triangular partnership.

With a combined GDP of 25 trillion USD across 2.1 billion people, the vast market, along with their complementary nature, holds enormous potential, broad prospects and abundant opportunities for greater cross-sectoral trade, investment and economic collaboration.

The summit is a groundbreaking initiative in regional economic cooperation, given today's fragmented geopolitical landscape. By enhancing connectivity and cooperation, the three sides can foster a vibrant economic circle and growth pole, which is highly important both to their respective economic prosperity and to peace and development in Asia and the world.

The summit adopted a joint statement, laying the groundwork for substantive cooperation. The joint statement's emphasis on WTO-centered multilateral trade rules counters rising protectionism, offering an alternative model of inclusive globalization. It reiterated efforts to enhance economic resilience and environmental sustainability, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to the people and future generations.

It also reaffirmed commitment to fostering sustainable trade practices for new economic opportunities in emerging and future-oriented industries, such as the digital and green economy and technologies. Partnerships in areas such as AI, blockchain, quantum computing, smart cities development, and advanced technological infrastructure will be explored.

Based on such a solid partnership, the trilateral cooperation is bound to deliver new achievements, with a more vibrant innovation ecosystem for the three sides.

As the world navigates unprecedented challenges, this novel trilateral framework could indeed become a compelling model for interregional cooperation, allowing all countries to share in more substantial benefits through the joint development of a large and integrated market.