New Delhi: Reaffirming the importance of India’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN, Malaysia appreciated India’s full support for ASEAN centrality and Malaysia’s upcoming ASEAN Chairmanship in 2025, the joint statement on India-Malaysia strategic partnership said.
Malaysia welcomed more engagements between ASEAN and India through ASEAN-led mechanisms towards further consolidating the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
According to the joint statement, both Prime Ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation and coordination at the UN, including at the UNSC, UNHRC, and other multilateral fora. The two leaders upheld that adherence to a rules-based international system is imperative to ensuring peace and development.
They pledged to work together to enhance multilateralism, reflective of contemporary realities so as to make international organisations, including the UN Security Council, more representative.
"The strengthening of Council membership with a focus on increasing representation from developing countries, including through the expansion of UNSC in both the permanent and non-permanent categories will render it more effective in addressing current global challenges. India deeply appreciated Malaysia’s support for India’s permanent membership in a reformed United Nations Security Council", the joint statement read.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim thanked Prime Minister Modi for the warm reception and hospitality extended to him and his delegation for the visit, and invited the Prime Minister of India to undertake a visit to Malaysia in the near future, as mutually convenient. Both Prime Ministers recognized that the Enhanced Strategic Partnership between India and Malaysia established in 2015 has helped in advancing bilateral ties into a multidimensional one.
Recognising that the relations between India and Malaysia have evolved and matured across a broad spectrum of areas and that this deepening of engagement has significantly widened and intensified the relations, the Prime Ministers determined that the timing is propitious for relations to be further consolidated into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The two leaders noted with great satisfaction the deep-rooted ties of friendship and socio-cultural linkages between India and Malaysia, and its peoples. The countries’ shared history, complemented by the presence of a vibrant Indian diaspora in Malaysia ensures that the two countries remain trusted partners in the field of economic growth and development.
Both Prime Ministers held discussions on the entire range of bilateral cooperation including political, defence and security cooperation, economic and trade, digital technologies, start-ups, fintech, energy including renewables, healthcare, higher education, culture, tourism and people-to-people relations, the joint statement read.
Both leaders witnessed the exchange of MoUs on cooperation in the fields of Recruitment, Employment and Repatriation of Workers; Ayurveda and other Traditional Systems of Medicines; Digital Technologies; Culture, Arts and Heritage; Tourism; Public Administration and Governance Reforms; Youth and Sports; and Financial Services between Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA) and International Financial Services Centres Authority, India (IFSCA).
Malaysia appreciated India’s initiative in hosting the Voice of the Global South Summit (VOGSS), providing a platform by which countries of the Global South could deliberate and address their concerns, interests and priorities as well as exchange ideas and solutions. India appreciated Malaysia’s participation in all three editions of the VOGSS.
The two Prime Ministers noted with satisfaction the continued exchange of high-level visits between the countries. Acknowledging the importance of close interaction, they agreed to hold regular exchanges and dialogue on bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest, including regular convening of Joint Commission Meetings (JCMs) and Foreign Office Consultations.
Both Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction on bilateral trade acknowledged that trade is an important fulcrum of the two countries’ Enhanced Strategic Partnership, and welcomed the fact that bilateral trade has reached a record high of US$19.5 billion.
They encouraged industry on both sides to further enhance bilateral trade in a sustainable manner for the mutual benefit of the two countries. In this regard, they expressed appreciation to the high-level CEOs Forum and commended the convening of the ninth (9th) meeting in New Delhi on 19 August 2024. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the growing bilateral investments and encouraged cooperation and investments across multiple sectors.
According to the joint statement, both sides agreed to support and expedite the review process of the ASEAN- India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) to make it more effective, user-friendly, simple, and trade-facilitative for businesses, aiming to achieve a substantial conclusion in 2025 and to strengthen supply chains between India and ASEAN countries.
Acknowledging the need to reflect on the contemporary economic priorities of the two countries, both Prime Ministers welcomed the discussions on convening the 2nd Joint Committee Meeting of the Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (MICECA).
In the area of digital cooperation, both Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of the MoU on Digital Technologies and encouraged the early convening of the Malaysia-India Digital Council to guide engagement in the digital realm and accelerate collaboration in this area such as Digital Public Infrastructure, digital B2B partnership, digital capacity building, cyber security, emerging technologies such as 5G, quantum computing, cloud computing, Internet of Things among others, between the two countries.
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