Comment by the Information and Press Department on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s talks with Foreign Minister of Malaysia Saifuddin Abdullah
On November 21, Moscow will host talks between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Foreign Minister of Malaysia Saifuddin Abdullah.
The two officials are expected to review in detail the current state of bilateral cooperation and its prospects in various spheres with a focus on carrying out agreements that were reached following the meeting between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad in September 2019 in Vladivostok on the sidelines of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum. They will also compare notes on topical international and regional matters, including the developments in the Islamic world and Russia’s cooperation with multilateral Muslim structures.
Malaysia is an important and promising partner for Russia in the Asia-Pacific Region, where Russia is consistent in its efforts to expand its diversified ties on the solid foundation of the traditional friendship and mutual trust.
Bilateral relations between the two countries are currently distinguished by proactive political dialogue, close economic cooperation, and steady efforts to promote military-technical and humanitarian ties.
Effective cooperation within the United Nations and other multilateral organisations and forums is an important factor of Russia-Malaysia ties. The two countries see eye to eye regarding most of the topical matters on the global agenda, including related to the emergence of a new security and cooperation architecture in the Asia-Pacific Region. Russia and Malaysia coordinate effectively their positions within the key regional platforms, including the Russia-ASEAN partnership, APEC, ASEM, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus.
Russia and Malaysia cooperate proactively on countering international terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and transnational crime.
Russia is interested in stepping up cooperation at the level of security councils of the two countries, and is satisfied with the visit by Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev to Kuala-Lumpur in August 2019.
Expanding trade, economic and investment cooperation is regarded as an utmost priority. We strongly believe that the first meeting of the Joint Russia-Malaysia Commission for Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation, held on October 2, 2019 (co-chaired by Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov and Malaysia’s Minister of Economic Affairs Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali) adds further momentum to stepping up collaboration in specific sectors. The next meeting of the intergovernmental commission is expected to take place in 2020 in Malaysia.
According to Russia’s Federal Customs Service, bilateral trade increased 26.3 percent year-on-year in 2018 to $2.7 billion, with Russia’s exports up 80.7 percent to $1.1 billion, and imports up 5.2 percent to $1.6 billion. In the first nine months of 2019 bilateral trade climbed 9.5 percent to $2.14 billion.
In 2018, minerals accounted for 79.8 percent of Russia’s exports to Malaysia, while imports from Malaysia consisted of machinery and equipment (66.5 percent), chemical products (15.8 percent), and food products, including palm oil (14 percent).
Investment cooperation is gaining momentum. In November 2019, Orgkhim, a Russian company, launched a plant in Johor Bahru that will produce green (non-carcinogenic) process oils for tires and rubber with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes for an investment of $59.7 million. Malaysia’s Rimbunan Hijau built a fibreboard plant (the project carried out in 2011 with investment by Malaysia of $110 million).
There are good prospects for stepping up cooperation in the energy sector, innovative medicine, laser technology, data protection and biotechnology.
Enhancing cooperation in training Malaysian experts in Russian universities is also high up on the agenda. About 2,000 Malaysian nationals are currently studying in Russia. Teaching Russian language and literature in Malaysian educational institutions is a promising field of collaboration.
Russia also sees substantial potential in expanding tourism flows, and stands ready to ensure that the number of Russian tourists visiting Malaysia increases from one year to another (67,600 in 2017, 72,800 in 2018), as well as to have more Malaysian tourists visit Russia (about 9,000 in 2017, and about 12,000 tourists from Malaysia visited Russia in 2018).
Russia and Malaysia cooperate proactively on global and regional matters, including within the United Nations, APEC, the East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEM, Russia-ASEAN dialogue partnership, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and other regional associations.
The visit by Foreign Minister of Malaysia Saifuddin Abdullah to Moscow is designed to strengthen the bilateral partnership in all spheres, which fully meets the long-term interests of the two countries, as well as with the view to promoting security, stability and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific Region.
