BEIJING — Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Malaysia in late May for a summit with a newly established supergroup of Southeast Asian and Arab na-tions, which Beijing hopes to rally against Washington’s tariffs, two sources told Reuters.
China is on an offensive to mend ties with the European Union, Japan and South Korea after United States President Donald Trump unleashed a global tariff salvo on April 2, which he abruptly paused for dozens of countries except China.
Li will be in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China summit on May 27, to be held a day after the Asean Summit, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. China has not publicly confirmed who it would send.
The GCC is made up of six Arab states, including major oil producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
Li’s visit will come after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Malaysia, this year’s Asean chairman, last month. While there, he urged Asean members to unite in resisting “excessive tariffs,” and progress has been made on finalizing an Asean-China free trade deal since then.
The Malaysia meetings will follow the high-stakes US-China trade talks in Switzerland this weekend that is likely to lay the groundwork for deeper negoti-ations between the world’s two largest economies after a period of escalation in the trade war.
One of the sources said the planning of the summit, which began a few months ago, predates Trump’s tariffs, but trade is expected to be high on the agenda with two major geopolitical power players invited to the region.
The Chinese and Malaysian foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 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 Beijing 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 percent of China’s total crude oil im-ports that year, according to United Nations figures.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that Washington was currently negotiating with 17 major trading partners, with some trade deals po-tentially finalized this week.
US officials say they intend to use trade negotiations with third countries to isolate China economically. In mid-April, China’s commerce chief held a vid-eo call with Saudi Arabia on responding to US tariffs.