The growing engagement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council is often cited as part of the broader rise of cooperation across the Global South. Yet viewing it simply as another example of South-South interaction misses its deeper significance.

For much of the past, energy exports from the Gulf supported Southeast Asia's industrialization, while ASEAN economies supplied manufactured goods and labor. These exchanges were mutually beneficial, but largely transactional.

Today, this framework no longer reflects the realities facing either region. Supply chain disruptions, energy market volatility, technological competition and growing geopolitical polarization have forced both ASEAN and the Gulf states to rethink how growth, resilience and autonomy can be sustained in a more uncertain world. Their expanding cooperation reflects the Global South's shift from reactive diplomacy to proactive system-building.

As ASEAN's largest trading partner and one of the Gulf's most important energy customers, China is already embedded in both regions' economic trajectories.

More important, China brings a development-oriented approach that resonates strongly across the Global South, emphasizing infrastructure, connectivity and productive capacity rather than political conditionality.

China's contribution is particularly visible in the area of connectivity.

Improved maritime routes, logistics hubs and digital infrastructure across Southeast Asia and the Middle East — many of which have benefited from Chinese investment and technical expertise — have lowered transaction costs and facilitated greater interaction between the ASEAN and Gulf economies. Rather than crowding out regional cooperation, this connectivity strengthens it, allowing Gulf capital, ASEAN markets and Chinese technology to interact in complementary ways. The result is not competition for influence, but a pragmatic alignment of strengths.

Energy cooperation illustrates how ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council relations are being redefined. While hydrocarbons remain central, engagement is increasingly shaped by shared concerns over energy security and transition. Gulf states are investing heavily in renewables, hydrogen and energy efficiency as part of broader economic diversification strategies, while ASEAN economies seek affordable and scalable solutions to meet rising demand without undermining climate commitments.

China's leadership in renewable technologies, electric vehicles and energy storage places it at the center of this convergence. Triangular cooperation — combining Gulf financing, Chinese technology and ASEAN implementation capacity — offers a realistic pathway for building new industrial value chains within the Global South.

The significance of ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council collaboration, supported by China's enabling role, extends beyond economics. Power today is increasingly derived not from military alliances or ideological leadership, but from the ability to shape development pathways, stabilize supply chains and provide credible alternatives to polarized governance models. This form of influence is quieter, but no less consequential — and it creates space for cooperation to evolve from coordination into something more ambitious.

By pooling capital, expertise and market access, ASEAN and Gulf states could support infrastructure, food security and energy projects across the wider Global South without relying exclusively on existing multilateral channels. Such platforms would not seek to replace established institutions, but to complement them by offering faster, more flexible and less politicized avenues for cooperation. China's experience in infrastructure delivery and industrial ecosystem development would be central to making these arrangements effective.

Perhaps most transformative would be a coordinated approach to technological sovereignty. As competition intensifies around digital standards, artificial intelligence and green technologies, the ASEAN and Gulf states face similar risks of dependency and exclusion. Joint investment in research, standards-setting and industrial capacity — linked to China's manufacturing strength and innovation ecosystems — could help ensure that emerging technologies remain accessible, affordable and aligned with development needs rather than narrow commercial interests.

China's role in this emerging architecture is not to dominate but to connect — mobilizing capital, technology and markets into a coherent development system. As ASEAN-Gulf cooperation advances from coordination to co-design, it marks a decisive turn from rhetoric to the active construction of a new Global South-centered model of global governance.

The author is an assistant professor at International Islamic University Malaysia.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.