Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday had wide ranging discussions in New Delhi to bring the India-Malaysia relationship to the stature of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This included MoUs in nine areas/segments right from the digital field, tourism, recruitment, employment, worker repatriation, and collaboration in Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine.
On the rice issue, India has agreed to a special allocation of 200,000 metric tones of white rice to Malaysia. It also agreed to grant an additional 100 ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) slots to Malaysian citizens. It will also set up an Ayurveda Chair at the University Tunku Abdul Rahman, and a Thiruvalluvar Chair of Indian Studies at the University Malaya in Malaysia. The two countries will also encourage cooperation between the start-up ecosystems through the recently created India-Malaysia Startup Alliance. Malaysia is an integral part of India's 'Act-East' policy and remains an important country in the ASEAN region. The relationship between the two countries had been taken to an Enhanced Strategic Partnership by the two Prime Ministers in 2015 when Prime Minister Modi had visited Malaysia.
Addressing a virtual global summit, PM Modi stated that these ten years have been completed under the Enhanced Strategic Partnership between India and Malaysia. He also stated that in the recent years, there has been a renewal in energy in cooperation with Malaysia under PM Anwar Ibrahim. Reciprocally, regional and global issues, especially ASEAN and the cooperation between the Global South, were some of the important topics discussed among the two leaders.
The newly-elected Prime Minister of Malaysia, who had arrived in New Delhi on Monday evening for his first visit to India after taking over in November 2022, received a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat. He will also participate in a roundtable meeting with Indian industry captains on ways to improve economic cooperation. He will also give a presentation to the Indian Council of World Affairs entitled "Towards a Rising Global South: Leveraging Malaysia-India Ties.".
Bilateral trade between the two nations hit RM 76.62 billion (USD 16.53 billion) in 2023, where Malaysia had a surplus of trade amounting to RM 15.89 billion (USD 3.43 billion) where India remained the top import destination for Malaysia's palm and its by-products that are valued at RM 11.31 billion (USD 2.44 billion). Major imports from India to Malaysia consisted of petroleum products and agricultural produce, which include both halal and non-halal meat. In 2023, Malaysia was ranked as the third largest trading partner with India in ASEAN and among the South Asia countries, it was ranked as the greatest trading partner.
Traveling with him are the two key Malaysian Ministers, Foreign Affairs Minister Utama Haji Mohamad bin Haji Hasan and Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz as Minister for Trade and Industry, together with a few others like Sri Tiong King Sing as Minister for Tourism, Gobind Singh Deo as Minister for Digital, and Steven Sim Chee Keong as Minister of Human Resource. Malaysia is also working on securing India's support over its application to join the BRICS grouping, which only recently accepted members on January 1, 2024, for Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
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