“Malaysia supports India’s permanent membership in UN Security Council”, MEA says

New Delhi [India], August 21 (ANI): Defence and security are important area of the ties between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Tuesday.

Malaysia also supports India’s bid for permanent membership in the UN Security Council, MEA added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had extensive discussions on trade and commerce, on defence and security, on cultural exchanges, people to people ties, on emerging areas like digital technologies, semiconductors, renewable energy, and sustainable development.

While addressing a press briefing, MEA Secretary East, Jaideep Mazumdar said that Malaysia has announced its support for India’s claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

He added, “Fintech start-ups, cross border payments systems and UPI-based systems are the new drivers of our engagement with Malaysia and we look forward.”

“There have been more than 15 bilateral visits at the level of minister or deputy minister, and this is reflected in the very wide range of engagement that we have today between India and Malaysia and the charts that we have charted for the relationship going forward. Today, they had extensive discussions on trade and commerce, on defence and security, on cultural exchanges, people to people ties, on emerging areas like digital technologies, semiconductors, renewable energy, and sustainable development. We have very close people-to-people connection with Malaysia,” he said.

In a post on X, the spokesperson of Malaysia, Randhir Jaiswal posted, “India-Malaysia charting a new future with a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Wide-ranging talks held between PM @narendramodi and PM @anwaribrahim of Malaysia to further intensify the India-Malaysia multi-dimensional relationship. The leaders agreed to elevate India-Malaysia relationship to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Discussions covered various areas of bilateral cooperation including trade & investment, defence, new & emerging technologies, cultural exchanges and people-to-people ties. The leaders also exchanged views on regional and global issues, including cooperation in ASEAN and Global South.”

Mazumdar added that the Indian diaspora is the largest in the world.

“The Indian diaspora is the third largest in the world, numbering about nearly 2.9 million, and it is the second largest PIO community, numbering about 2.75 billion. It is also home to many skilled and unskilled workers and it professionals from India who participate in the Malaysian economy and contribute to its growth and development,” he said.

Mazumdar said that the two leaders signed several important agreements during this time.

“Today, the recruitment, employment and repatriation of workers is an important area. This is quite a signal memorandum of understanding because it paves the way for the welfare of Indian workers, ensuring their welfare and their proper conditions of work as well as repatriation,” he said.

Mazumdar added that this aspect was being worked on by both the side.

“And this is something that both sides have been working on for some time. And it will go a long way not only in securing the welfare of Indian workers, but also opening up the entire field of employment in Malaysia that is open to foreign workers for Indian workers as well,” he said.

Mazumdar added that MoUs were signed in the areas of public administration, digital technologies, cultural cooperation and tourism promotion.

“Another MoU that was signed was in the area of public administration and governance reform. A third on digital technologies, one on cultural cooperation, an agreement on tourism promotion,” he said.

He said that the India-Malaysia tourist traffic is increasing.

“The India-Malaysia tourist traffic is booming. It is expected that we may touch as much as 1 million Indian tourists to Malaysia this year. And the number of Malaysian tourists to India is also growing rapidly. We have around 200,000 Malaysian tourists to India. The number of flights are 220 flights a week from between India and Malaysia and we look forward to increasing this number. We have announced free e-visas for Malaysian tourists coming to India since July 1 and Malaysia similarly has a visa-free regime for Indians both for tourism and business purposes starting from the end of last year. So from all these accounts we can expect our tourism traffic between the two countries as well as business travel to boom, which will also help our aviation sectors,” he said.

He added that MoUs were signed on Ayurveda, fintech and sports.

“Another area of cooperation that we identified and signed an MoU was on Ayurveda and traditional medicine systems. There is an agreement between IFSCA and Labuan Financial services on fintech and another MoU on promotion of sports and youth affairs,” he said.

He added that another MoU was signed on BEML and SMH rails for supply of rolling stock for Indian railways.

“Both sides have a high-powered CEO’s forum which met yesterday and presented a report before the two Prime Ministers. It is a very ambitious objective in diverse areas of industry and investment between the two business entities. This was coordinated by CII from our site. A number of other MoUs and agreements also happened on the sidelines of the visit. One was between BEML and SMH rails for supply of rolling stock for Indian railways, one between invest India and Malaysian Indian Business Council, and one between Nascom and its counterpart PCom to bring the two chambers of IT industry closer together. There’s a very big presence of Indian IT companies in Malaysia as well,” he said.

He also said that some important announcements that were made during this visit to support Malaysia in its quest for food security.

“We have announced that we will supply another 200,000 metric tons of non-basmati rice to Malaysia. A chair of Ayurveda will be set up at the Tunku Abdul Rahman University in Malaysia and a Thiruvalluvar chair will be set up at the Malaya University. A digital council is being set up to push the digital connect between India and Malaysia. A start-up bridge has been instituted to bring our start-up ecosystems together. India is offering 100 I-Tech seats in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and machine learning for Malaysian students.,” Mazumdar said.

Mazumdar said that Malaysia has announced that it will join the big Cat alliance.

“Malaysia has also announced joining the big Cat alliance,” he said.

Both countries agree on this ambitious and contemporary agenda for bilateral ties, he said.

“Our bilateral trade has also been booming. It’s now touched USD 20 billion. Malaysia is our third largest trading partner in ASEAN. The two Prime Ministers have in fact tasked us to set up a task force to implement all the diverse areas of engagement that we have identified during this visit and to present a report within three months. So it is something that we will start working right from today,” he said.

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