Editor's note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain, a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and former assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, is a TV anchor at Indus News in Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman issued a joint statement with China in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province, calling for devising strategic economic frameworks and expanding trading ties between the two sides. Joint calls for building long-term, sustainable partnerships grounded in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the creation of free trading zones in an era where the world economy faces unprecedented challenges were issued.

The talks which featured GCC Secretary General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf and the foreign ministers of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain focused on one main principle and that was to establish a geo-economic strategic partnership with China as an apolitical and neutral economic partner for collective prosperity.

Future courses of action were charted out for providing tangible benefits for local populations by leveraging geo-economics through East-West connectivity, with the Middle East serving as a regional trading hub, as envisioned by both Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf.

The meeting also set a precedent as it took place a month before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, with mutual trust between sovereign states once again paving the way for meaningful and practical cooperation. It marks a sharp and glaring departure from the U.S. strategy of containing China in the region that imperils security and threatens meaningful economic engagement.

Both the GCC and China continue to head in the right direction. The GCC secretary general openly stated that China's influence and its positive role in the international system is both laudable and commendable, with great expectations attached to future cooperation between the two sides.

There also exists a mutual understanding that leveraging strategic locations in a productive direction can yield long-term benefits. This includes capitalizing on action plans for dialogue, which will take place for three years, as well as negotiations for securing an FTA at the earliest.

The significance of the visit was underlined by Li Shaoxian, director of the China Institute for Arab Studies at Ningxia University, who referred to the year 2004 when negotiations on a GCC-China FTA had first commenced. Both sides also held five rounds of negotiations leading up to the dialogue in Wuxi, with agreements focusing on energy related projects and immense potential to further expand into the agricultural and services sectors for holistic economic, technological and scientific cooperation between the GCC and China.

Also, in the absence of flashpoints, the foreign policy leanings of GCC member states in the region have remained independent of forging amiable ties with China bilaterally and collectively. This has resulted in unwavering economic support. Since 2012 China has been the largest export market for GCC states and bilateral trading ties have translated into sustainable economic partnerships, as each member state has joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

As per estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce, by the year 2030, China will be able to cater to almost all of the Gulf states' oil export needs by purchasing 80 percent of GCC output. According to experts such as Yin Gang from the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a partner such as China is needed as the U.S. decreased its investments in the Middle East over the years, which further jeopardizes economic growth prospects for oil-reliant countries beyond 2022.

Additionally, the GCC member states' sovereign wealth funds play an important role in supporting China's international financial systems with each country being a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The historical foundations are strong and potential for further growth is huge.

These realities are the products of relations which are grounded in sincerity of intention with focused on economic goals which need to be collectively achieved. The alignment of strategic priorities with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and their visions of 2030 and 2035 being in coherence with the BRI clearly suggests that collective economic prosperity is a priority for both China and the GCC.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)