The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Anwar, believes that the inaugural ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit held on Tuesday successfully reshapes the cooperation model to suit the reality of today's multipolar world.
The Prime Minister's Senior Press Secretary, Tengku Nasru, stated that the trilateral summit symbolizes the power of regional group unity and is expected to have a positive impact on a global scale.
"Today's (27th) focus is to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and strategic partners through the 2nd ASEAN-GCC Summit and the inaugural trilateral summit."
"These two summits will discuss specific measures to expand trade, investment, and sustainable development cooperation, aligning with ASEAN's vision to play a larger role in the Indo-Pacific geoeconomic landscape."
He said this during a live broadcast on the Facebook page of Anwar and the Prime Minister's Office today.
According to statistics, the combined economic size of ASEAN, the GCC, and China is close to 25 trillion USD, with a total population exceeding 2 billion people.
ASEAN is the world's fifth-largest economy, with a GDP of 3.8 trillion USD, and China remains ASEAN's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching 696.7 billion USD.
Nasru mentioned that apart from the aforementioned two summits, today will also see the 16th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Summit and the 16th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit being held.
He said that these two summits will help promote the sub-regional development agenda and strengthen cross-border connectivity among the relevant countries.
These summits are among the important events held during the 46th ASEAN Summit.
Additionally, he pointed out that today, marking the final day of the ASEAN Summit, will continue the positive momentum achieved yesterday, further enhancing our country's role in leading ASEAN's strategic cooperation agenda with regional and global partners.
He said that our country is focused on the important meetings being held and is committed to ensuring meaningful and principle-driven outcomes continue to be produced during our tenure as the ASEAN rotating chair, bringing direct benefits to the people of ASEAN.