2024-08-20 15:33:31
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim came to India for the first time as Prime Minister on Monday. He was given a warm welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself received Anwar Ibrahim and welcomed him with a hug. Anwar Ibrahim sought India’s support to join the BRICS group and promised to strengthen bilateral relations. Last year’s trade between India and Malaysia was more than 16 billion dollars. The Malaysian Prime Minister’s visit to India is being considered very important. Malaysia is also considered a country close to China, although there is a dispute between the two countries over the South China Sea.
Why does Malaysia want to become a member of BRICS
This is the first time since 2018 that a Malaysian Prime Minister has visited India with his delegation. One of the key objectives of this visit is also to strengthen Malaysia’s relations with one of Asia’s fastest growing economies. India is the largest buyer of Malaysian palm oil and a major exporter of rice to the Southeast Asian country. Analysts say the application to join BRICS is aimed at reducing the potential impact on Malaysia from the growing US-China trade war.
Anwar Ibrahim trying to improve relations with India
BRICS’ founding members include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The BRICS countries represent 45 percent of the world’s population. Analysts say Anwar’s three-day visit is also an opportunity to re-establish Malaysia’s relations with India, as relations with India had weakened significantly under the previous Malaysian administration. Not only this, China’s influence in Malaysia had also increased significantly.
Malaysian PM looking for investment from India
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, political analyst and Malaysia expert Adib Jalkapli said, “It is strange that no Malaysian prime minister has visited India for six years. The pandemic and years of political uncertainty in Malaysia may have diverted the government’s attention from the important bilateral relationship. Anwar’s visit is reversing the benign neglect by previous administrations.” During his visit, Anwar will hold talks with his counterpart Narendra Modi, as well as meet Indian industrialists and deliver a lecture on Malaysia-India relations, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Mahathir Mohammed had spoiled bilateral relations
This is the first top-level visit by a Malaysian leader since former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused India of “invading and occupying” Kashmir in 2019. Indian traders upset by his comments had also boycotted Malaysian palm oil. According to Malaysian government data, India has been Malaysia’s top palm oil export market for 10 consecutive years, buying 2.84 million tonnes or about 20 percent of Malaysia’s total palm oil exports in 2023. In contrast, China bought 1.47 million tonnes of palm oil shipments. Malaysia is also heavily dependent on India for its domestic food supply.
Malaysia is dependent on India for food
In March, Malaysia’s government requested to import an additional 500,000 metric tons of rice from India, the world’s largest rice exporter. A prolonged drought in Malaysia has reduced domestic production and increased pressure on national grain reserves. The request was in addition to Malaysia’s earlier rice export quota of 170,000 metric tons allocated for the year. India also has deep cultural ties with Malaysia, where hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Indians visit their ancestral family villages and make religious pilgrimages to temples each year.