China's premier calls for expanded trade ties with Malaysia

BEIJING: China's Premier Li Qiang called for expanded trade and investment ties with Malaysia, urging the two countries to safeguard free and multilateral trade in a meeting with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday, Xinhua reported.

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Chinese Premier Li meets PM Anwar in Malaysia to push economic ties with ASEAN and GCC amid global trade challenges.
China wants deeper cooperation to counter rising protectionism and maintain open, multilateral trade.
ASEAN and GCC are key trade partners for China, with major trade volumes in goods and oil.

The Chinese premier is in Kuala Lumpur this week for a summit with leaders from Southeast Asian and Gulf countries, following a three-day visit to Indonesia.

Li's meeting with Anwar also comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping toured the region last month at the height of Beijing's tariff confrontation with Washington.

Although a trade truce between the world's two largest economies was announced this month, Beijing is still seeking to consolidate ties with other economies.

"At a time when unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise and world economic growth is sluggish," Li said, China, ASEAN and GCC countries "should strengthen coordination and cooperation and jointly uphold open regionalism and true multilateralism".

China is willing to work with Malaysia to "promote closer economic cooperation among the three parties" and respond to global challenges, Li told Anwar.

The GCC is the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises six Arab states including major oil producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. Malaysia is hosting the newly established ASEAN-GCC-China summit this week.

ASEAN is China's largest trading partner, with total trade value reaching $234 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to Chinese customs data, while China is the GCC's top trading partner.

The GCC's total commodity trade with China reached almost $298 billion in 2023, while the bloc accounted for 36% of China's total crude oil imports that year, according to U.N. figures.