The leaders of India and Malaysia said on Tuesday they would enhance their economic relationship and strengthen cooperation on defense and security. This followed the first-ever visit of Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim to India since his election to office in 2022, during which the former met Indian PM Narendra Modi.
Of late, Anwar has been inching closer to China, with whom New Delhi has had a decades-old border dispute. One critical component of India’s foreign policy has been to deepen trade and ties with other nations in Asia, including Malaysia, to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.
The leaders addressed the media following the signing of many new agreements involving digital technologies, tourism, and traditional medicine, among other areas. Anwar said the two countries had enjoyed good relations for many years, adding that there is a necessity to strengthen cooperation in fields like construction, agriculture, and military cooperation to secure their borders.
They had discussed cooperation in the defence sector and he felt that the volume of trade and investment must increase as they work closer on new industries such as semiconductor manufacturing. He reiterated the increased collaboration between both countries which took up “new momentum and energy” over time. He was greeted ceremoniously at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Indian presidential palace, and then paid his respects to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi at the Rajghat memorial site. $20 billion in bilateral trade is a respectable amount for the two nations.
Malaysia is India’s sixteenth-largest trading partner, and India is in the top 10 largest trading partners with Malaysia. About 70 Malaysian enterprises have their headquarters in India, and more than 150 Indian businesses are present in Malaysia, where the proportion of Indian population is approximately 7% of the total.