Leaders from Southeast Asia, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and China are meeting for the first-ever ASEAN-GCC-China Economic Summit—a new trilateral dialogue that could reshape the contours of international cooperation. Against the backdrop of shifting global power, this summit brings together three of the world’s most dynamic economic regions, each with its own strategic ambitions. But while economic opportunity headlines the agenda, geopolitical undercurrents are hard to ignore. What does this new triangle of cooperation say about the future of power, partnership, and influence across Asia and the Middle East? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Dr Phar Kim Beng, Professor of ASEAN Studies at International Islamic University Malaysia, and Visiting Faculty of Universiti Malaya’s Asia Europe Institute.
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00:00Hi, welcome back to Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris.
00:23Let's continue our discussion about the inaugural ASEAN GCC China Economic Summit,
00:30a new trilateral dialogue that could reshape the contours of international cooperation.
00:37Joining me now is Dr. Fa Kim Beng, who is a professor of ASEAN Studies at International Islamic University Malaysia.
00:46He's also visiting faculty of University of Malaysia's Asia-Europe Institute.
00:52Professor, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining me.
00:55What does this new grouping, this ASEAN GCC and China grouping,
01:02reflect to you about a new strategic realignment in the global economy?
01:10Is this an unusual trilateral configuration in your opinion?
01:15It's not unusual in the sense that since the re-election of President Donald Trump
01:23as the 47th American president, there has been the talk that globalisation is about to become all unhinged.
01:31As and when you have that noises behind the background,
01:37one also has to keep in mind that precisely because of globalisation,
01:41the world over the last 30 years has become regionalised in different forms
01:47and in different parts of the political geography.
01:50So two regional organisations that are relatively successful in managing the tensions,
01:56both in the Gulf, in the Middle East, and also in Southeast Asia,
02:00are obviously the Gulf Cooperation Council and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN.
02:05As and when they actually come together is also because of the initiative
02:11that the ministers have taken way back in 2009.
02:15So the heads of states and the heads of government are finally converging
02:20and having a serious conversation on how they want to deal with power
02:27that they once assumed to be relatively stable, but now is a quirk
02:32in the whole geopolitical and geoeconomic equation.
02:37Now, in a very predictable manner, China has become the one country
02:43that they can also have a decent conversation with,
02:48precisely because China is that one country
02:51that has embraced and internalised the ethos and values of globalisation.
02:55I wanted to reference something, just to kind of follow up on what you just said.
03:01You wrote an opinion piece, a column that was quite interesting,
03:07in which you talked about this summit and you said you called it a historic summit
03:12because it institutionalises, and I'm going to quote here,
03:15institutionalises symmetry among three civilisation spheres,
03:19Maritime Southeast Asia, the Islamic Gulf and Confusion China.
03:23Talk to me a little bit about that alignment
03:26and what this emerging axis of cooperation reveals to you
03:32about a new emerging global order, as you mentioned earlier.
03:36Thank you very much for raising that.
03:38Obviously, I'm doing something right.
03:40Otherwise, the TV broadcasters will not be picking up on my articles.
03:45Now, within the context of what I wrote,
03:46there's a lot of truism to what I said
03:50because the Gulf Cooperation Council is comprised of six Arab countries
03:57which are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman.
04:05To the degree that we can refer to these six countries as a snippet
04:11or as a very abbreviated version of the Islamic world,
04:18then we can say that this is actually an Islamic civilisation reaching out to the east.
04:24Now, when I refer to the east, I'm mainly referring to the combo of Southeast Asia
04:29which is ASEAN and also China.
04:32Now, that having been said, we also have to be quite aware of the fact
04:39that historically, the Silk Road is actually a historical two-way street
04:46between both the west and the east
04:49to the degree that the Arab and Islamic world has saw light at the end of the tunnel
04:56and wants to work more closely with the Far East
05:00and even the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
05:02There is that confluence and also resurgence,
05:06revival of what their ancestors and our ancestors have been doing
05:10for thousands of years, leading to the personification of Silk Road.
05:16So, that's definitely a kind of historical element here
05:20but there is an unlevel playing field, if I may,
05:25with this trilateral arrangement.
05:29Who do you think benefits the most from this alignment?
05:35Who's the big winner here, if I may ask?
05:38Well, the big winner here is actually everyone
05:41at the risk of being cliché.
05:43The reason why I said that is because as and when you reach out
05:48and try to position your own region or even your respective countries
05:53in a better light within the context of what is going on
05:57in Washington, D.C. right now, which is a lot of furniture
06:01and moving parts all over, then obviously you are injecting
06:05a high degree of predictability and policy accountability.
06:08So, when you have that kind of sober and rational policy-driven dialogue,
06:17it helps that you will be one of the first beneficiary.
06:21But we also have to keep in mind that the lives of President Donald Trump
06:25all of a sudden also discovered the importance of Gulf Corporation Council
06:29and reached out to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Saudi United Arab Emirates.
06:35And his perception is that he has actually succeeded
06:40in getting the Grand Hall, verging on close to maybe $1 trillion worth
06:47of investment, although the precise figure has to be verified further
06:51because you are dealing with someone who has a tendency
06:54of playing around with large numbers.
06:56Right.
06:57Can I ask you about that?
06:59What do you make of Donald Trump's three-nation tour to the Gulf region?
07:04Do you think that reflects now the Gulf states are in sync
07:10with the U.S. and some of the region's biggest issues?
07:15Well, to a large extent, it also reflects what we are discussing right now,
07:21which is the likes of some countries going east.
07:25So, in this case, very ironically, you have the United States,
07:29the most powerful nation supposedly on the world, on the planet Earth,
07:37trying to reach out to the east in order to enlist them to invest in the United States
07:43in the form of more investment from their own sovereign funds.
07:47So, is this a strategic realignment?
07:50Again, it is, but then it is being calibrated in such a form that it is the west reaching
07:57out to the east for further financial investment and infusions of liquid funds.
08:05Okay.
08:05Well, Professor, Profah, I have to ask you, when you say that this is a win-win for everyone,
08:13the big player in this trilateral arrangement is China.
08:19It's an economic superpower we cannot deny.
08:22Do you think there is a risk of China becoming the primary agenda setter here?
08:29That, in fact, what this is doing is really kind of moving all of these regional economic blocks
08:34closer to a China-centric orbit?
08:39Well, if we are moving in the direction of a China-centric order or orbit,
08:46it's strictly because the United States has gifted China various political gifts that even the east itself,
08:56or perhaps China itself wasn't expecting, in terms of the policy gaps,
09:00in terms of banning students from going to their leading institutions of learning,
09:05and also imposing universal tariffs on friends and foals alike.
09:10When you resort to all that form of extremist measure, obviously someone is going to gain.
09:19And that someone is precisely the nation that knows how to hold itself in a very composed,
09:25calm and collected manner.
09:27And for the moment right now, that country seems to be China.
09:31Okay, well, what are you watching out for in the months ahead to see if this cooperation,
09:39because this is the inaugural economic summit,
09:44hopefully we'll see more cooperation come out of this,
09:46but what are you looking out for to see if it will live up to all the potential,
09:52all the hype that we're hearing about having this new axis of cooperation?
09:57If we were to refer to the first GCC and ASEAN summit way back in October 10 and 11 in 2023,
10:07we can actually see two distinct styles of diplomatic outcome and product.
10:13If we were reading the press release of Gulf Cooperation Council back then,
10:20the language can be rather verbose and long and lengthy.
10:23But if we were to focus on what ASEAN actually produced at that meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
10:31it's actually very pifty, very precise and very purposeful.
10:36Now, when you have the potential marriage of these two distinct styles of diplomacy,
10:42then obviously there is some kind of confluence and combustion
10:46that can actually lead to very empirically driven and policy-specific outcome.
10:51So we are looking for that sign that the diplomats, the leaders and the heads of states
10:57actually know how to drive and shepherd the process forward in spite of the hype that you hear.
11:05Well, very exciting times in a shifting global order.
11:10Dr. Fa, thank you so much for being on the show with me today.
11:13Dr. Fa Kim Beng there wrapping up this episode of Consider This.
11:17I'm Melissa Idris signing off in the evening.
11:19Thank you so much for watching and good night.
11:21Thank you so much for watching.
11:43.
11:43You