GLOBAL: Asean-GCC-China Summit
Arnaud Bertrand wrote a thread on X outlining why this summit should get more attention : This has bizarrely received almost zero coverage in Western media but it could turn out to be quite significant.
“China, the countries of South-East Asia (ASEAN) and the Arab states (GCC) just held a summit in Kuala Lumpur to forge what could become the world's largest economic bloc, covering everything from free trade agreements and de-dollarization to Belt-and-Road connectivity.”
- In their joint statement (found here: https://kln.gov.my/web/guest/-/joint-statement-summit-of-the-association-of-southeast-asian-nations-asean-the-cooperation-council-for-the-arab-states-of-the-gulf-gcc-and-the-people-…) they agree to:
- 1) Massively develop free trade between them :"Promoting free trade and welcoming the full conclusion of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Negotiations, and looking forward to its early signing and entering into force, as well as an early conclusion of the China-GCC Free Trade Agreement negotiations"
- 2) Bypass the dollar : "Exploring cooperation on local currency and cross-border payments"
- 3) Belt and road expansion, for "seamless and efficient inter-connectedness": "Promoting high quality cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative and seamless connectivity, including through the development of logistics corridors and digital platforms".
“In short, this could represent nothing less than the most significant realignment of global economic power in generations, bringing together 2 billion people and more than half of the world's GDP growth under a single cooperative framework. https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1927916158759621029”
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