On October 28, 2025 local time, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council attended the 28th China-ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Li Qiang said that as President Xi Jinping noted during his visit to Southeast Asia in April, "Unity brings strength, and cooperation leads to mutual success." This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. During that war, China and Southeast Asian nations stood by one another and fought shoulder to shoulder, eventually achieving independence and liberation. In the ensuing decades, the two sides continued to stand side by side to promote common development. Both sides inspired one another and pulled together to deliver rapid economic growth. Both sides supported one another and coalesced amid hardships to overcome major challenges like financial crises, tsunamis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. China and ASEAN countries should be more resolute in maintaining unity and self-reliance, build greater synergy, and remove external disturbances. The two sides must defend legitimate rights and interests through mutual support and coordinated action, and promote steady and sound economic growth by leveraging complementary strengths and deepening cooperation.

Li Qiang noted that China stands ready to work with ASEAN countries to strengthen the alignment of development strategies, deliver on the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2026-2030), and continue advancing the building of an even closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. First, further consolidate strategic mutual trust. China and ASEAN countries should strengthen strategic communication and properly handle differences. China will continue to support promoting the peaceful settlement of disputes between Cambodia and Thailand in the ASEAN way. China and ASEAN countries need to speed up consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) and strive for its early conclusion. Second, promote deeper convergence of interests. Taking the implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol as an opportunity, the two sides should accelerate trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and strengthen industrial integration and interconnection. China will continue to replenish the China-ASEAN cooperation fund and is ready to work with ASEAN countries to establish a China-ASEAN digital academy, build a platform for AI cooperation, and set up a center for maritime development and technological cooperation. The two sides should deepen cooperation in transportation, digital economy, green economy, disaster prevention and mitigation, climate change and other areas. Third, forge stronger people-to-people bonds. The two sides will hold a successful closing ceremony of the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-people Exchanges this year. The year 2026 will be designated as the China-ASEAN Year on the Fifth Anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Both sides will speed up the establishment of meeting mechanisms of tourism and education ministers of China and ASEAN countries, and make good use of the China-ASEAN Network of Academies on Governance and Public Administration and Think Tanks. China is ready to march forward together with ASEAN countries, and promote the sustained and steady development of China-ASEAN cooperation.

Leaders of ASEAN countries attending the summit said that ASEAN-China relations have continued to deepen, yielding fruitful cooperation across various fields that have brought extensive benefits to the people of the region. ASEAN-China relations have become a paradigm of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes in regional cooperation. ASEAN countries are willing to strengthen strategic communication with China, enhance political mutual trust, and work together to implement the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2026-2030) and China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol. The ASEAN countries also stand ready to expand cooperation with China in areas such as economy and trade, connectivity, digital economy, green development, energy, education, tourism, and combating transnational crimes. Leaders of ASEAN countries also expressed the willingness to strengthen people-to-people bonds and advance the ASEAN-China comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level. ASEAN is willing to work with China for the early conclusion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, so as to make positive contributions to peace, security and stability in the region.

Before the summit, Li Qiang and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, jointly witnessed the signing of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol.