New Delhi: A busy week for Indian diplomacy continues as Foreign Affairs Minister of Malaysia Zambry Abdul Kadir is all set to arrive in New Delhi on a Sunday night to co-chair the 6th India-Malaysia Joint Commission meeting with Minister for External Affairs Dr Jaishankar. The visit comes at an unprecedented time when the world is staring at geopolitical uncertainty. The visit will provide an opportunity to comprehensively review bilateral relations and to explore ways to further deepen and strengthen them. China and other issues of mutual interests are expected to be discussed.
Speaking of the significance of the visit, India’s former ambassador Jitendra Tripathi, who served in various capacities in Indian Embassies in Zambia, Maldives, Hungary and Sweden, said, “The meeting assumes significance because it is being held after a gap of 12 years. The meeting plans to discuss ways and means to increase bilateral cooperation in several areas ranging from trade to defence, regional strategic issues, tourism, education and culture."
India-Malaysia bilateral ties
“India’s relation with Malaysia have been by and large very cordial except in 2020 when as a protest against Malaysia’s anti-India statement on the revocation of Article 370 on Jammu & Kashmir, India, the largest buyer of Malaysian palm oil with 4.4 million tonnes per year, almost stopped the import. However, the tension eased out soon”, Tripathi told ETV Bharat.
He said that currently, the bilateral trade between the two countries of about $20 billion is in India’s favour as it exports goods and services worth $ 13 billion against imports of goods worth $ 7 billion. “While more than 100 Indian companies are located in Malaysia dealing mainly with IT and ITES, pharma, metal, construction and shipping, 33 Malaysian companies dealing primarily in trading chemicals and minerals rubber registered their presence in India," he said.
“However, the sole irritant in bilateral relations had been Zakir Naik, an Islamic scholar with dubious credentials, who had been living in Malaysia since he was declared a fugitive by the Indian government, which failed to bring him back to India to face trial," he pointed out. The Joint Commission Meeting will review the progress of the Enhanced Strategic Partnership with Malaysia in the areas of politics, defence, security, economics, trade and investment, health, science and technology, culture, tourism, and people-to-people ties, and will also discuss regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest," the MEA stated.
During his visit, Foreign Affairs Minister of Malaysia Zambry Abdul Kadir is also scheduled to call on Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar. The visit will provide an opportunity to comprehensively review bilateral relations and to explore ways to further deepen and strengthen them. The relations between India and Malaysia have traditionally been close and friendly. There have been regular summit-level exchanges and meetings. India established diplomatic relations with the Federation of Malaya, which was the predecessor state of Malaysia, in 1957.
Meanwhile, the India-Malaysia defence ties have been growing at a pace. Recently, a major joint exercise between Indian and Malaysian armies to increase inter-operability between personnel of both forces and strengthen global security came to an end at the Umroi training node in the northeastern state of Meghalaya on Saturday.
