The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Five years after their relations hit rock bottom, India and Malaysia have taken steps to reset ties with the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to New Delhi, during which they reportedly emphasised the importance of “racial tolerance” and “religious harmony”.
Ibrahim arrived on Monday (August 19) evening for a two-day visit, which was his first visit to India after taking over as prime minister in 2022.
The last visit by a Malaysian prime minister was by Najib Razak in 2018. Relations soured the following year when former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made disparaging remarks about Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2019.
In the last couple of years, there has been a flurry of ministerial visits, culminating in the current state visit.
“We have decided that we will elevate our cooperation to the level of [a] ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” said the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his press remarks on Tuesday after talks at Hyderabad House.
A total of eight agreements were signed, and several announcements were made following formal discussions that exceeded the scheduled time, lasting over an hour and a half.
“Yes, Malaysia and India from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru and Tunku Abdul Rahman had established good relations. But we realised, under our generation, that this must be further strengthened in the multitude areas which as Prime Minister Modi said includes digital investments and trade, construction and modern agriculture, education, research in all fields, including military collaboration in terms of joint operations to safeguard our borders,” said Ibrahim.
In recent years, the Indian media has periodically raised concerns about the presence of Indian Islamist preacher Zakir Naik in Malaysia, who obtained permanent residency in that country. His organisation, the Islamic Research Foundation, was banned by India in 2016.
India had formally asked Malaysia to extradite him for inciting terrorism, but Kuala Lumpur had demurred. Last year, when Naik travelled to Oman, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that his extradition had been raised with the Gulf country as he was considered a “fugitive from justice”.
However, Naik was conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s written public statements by either side.
But the Malaysian PM had to address the issue when a question was posed after his speech at the Indian Council for World Affairs. “We are open to any ideas and if evidence is submitted … we will not condone terrorism, but one has to produce a compelling case to support,” said Ibrahim.
Despite multiple questions about whether Naik’s issue was raised, the MEA’s media briefing on the visit offered no direct response.
MEA secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar stated that while he “didn’t want to go into specifics”, both leaders had a discussion on extremism and radicalism. He claimed they saw “eye to eye” on the two issues.
He added that both leaders discussed “the importance racial harmony, of religious tolerance and religious harmony”.
“And as you know, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has himself been a very great advocate of harmony and inter-religious harmony [and] inter-ethnic harmony, and therefore it was in that context that both leaders discussed these issues,” said the senior MEA official.
Earlier at the joint press appearance, Ibrahim said that India and Malaysia mirrored each other. “India is multicultural and multi-religious. Malaysia [is] a much smaller country but very proud of our civilisation and culture, and [is] also multicultural, multi-racial and multi-religious. And therefore we have a lot of commonalities, which extend beyond just trade and investments”.
Among the agreements, the Indian side highlighted the memorandum of understanding for the “Recruitment, Employment and Repatriation of workers”.
Malaysia allows for the recruitment of workers from 15 countries, including India. Currently, there are 1,40,000 Indian workers in Malaysia, which also hosts the third largest population of the Indian diaspora.
“The agreement is important because it also annexes a model contract between employers and employees, which should be really like a lodestone, like a guiding post on how such [a] model contract should be for foreign workers. So, we are very happy with that. It also lays down the obligations of employers and employee[s], and welfare measures that are required to address issues of employees,” said Mazumdar.
With Malaysia having become India’s third-largest trade partner in ASEAN and the total value of trade between the two countries standing at around $40 billion, there was considerable time spent on the need to further enhance the volume of trade, indicated officials. The trade has been largely in favour of Malaysia due to its exports of palm oil.
In his remarks, Modi stated that Malaysian investment in India was $5 billion in 2023, covering semiconductors, financial technology, artificial intelligence and the defence industry.
According to India’s ambassador to Malaysia B.N. Reddy, both countries started to settle trade in their own rupee and ringgit currencies starting last year.
While stating that the popularity of this practice was still “in [the] early stages”, Reddy said it was gaining traction among businessmen. “Our commerce and industry ministry has urged the Indian exporters who are dealing with Malaysia to take this particular route,” he said.
During the visit, it was announced that India would make a stand-alone export of 200,000 metric tons of non-basmati rice to Malaysia, granting an exception to its existing ban on such shipments.
The Indian side also revealed that the South China Sea was discussed, but in the “context of the importance of free and open sea lines of communication, navigation, commercial shipping and overflight”.
There was also an exchange of views on enhancing defence cooperation.
“It was discussed between the two prime ministers, both in terms of the compatibility of equipment that we have and how we can co-operate in that area … [of] maintenance and extending the service life of such equipment and also in terms of India being a source country for defence exports,” said Mazumdar.
The Malaysian prime minister has shown strong interest in seeking membership in the BRICS bloc of developing countries, making it a top priority during his visit to India.
India did not officially endorse the bid but expressed its openness to “considering” it.
“Malaysia is keen to become a member of BRICS. We conveyed that we have no hesitation in considering that request and that it will be discussed when the other BRICS countries meet,” said the MEA secretary (East).