Indian Prime Minister Modi calls on Dr Mahathir
PUTRAJAYA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad here yesterday.
Modi made a brief stopover in Malaysia to personally extend his best wishes and congratulations to Dr Mahathir on Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the 14th General Election and Dr Mahathir’s appointment as the prime minister.
Modi arrived at Perdana Putra at 11.35am and was greeted upon arrival by Dr Mahathir.
The two leaders then proceeded to the Prime Minister’s Office at Level 5 and engaged in discussions for almost an hour. Modi tweeted in English and Bahasa Malaysia on his official Twitter account @ narendramodi that he was glad to have met Dr Mahathir.
“I thank him for the warm welcome. We had productive discussions on further cementing India-Malaysia ties,” he said.
Dr Mahathir’s official Twitter account @ chedetofficial also had a post on his meeting with Modi: “Receiving courtesy visit by Prime Minister of India, His Excellency The Honourable Narendra Modi. Selamat Datang ke Malaysia!”
This is the first meeting between the two leaders. Modi last visited Malaysia on Nov 23, 2015. Wisma Putra said in a statement on Tuesday that the meeting between the leaders of the two countries underlined the fundamental strength of the millennia- old relations between Malaysia and India.
It said the visit also demonstrated the strong commitment of the two countries to further strengthen the strategic partnership. Malaysia and India enjoy close relations through cultural and historical linkages as well as in various key areas, particularly infrastructure development, education, tourism and defence.
India is Malaysia’s largest trading partner in South Asia, with total trade amounting to RM61.43 billion in 2017.
Prior to the stopover in Malaysia, Modi concluded a visit to Indonesia. He is scheduled to visit Singapore later today.
The visits to Indonesia ( from May 29 to 31) and Singapore ( May 31 to June 2) are at the invitations of Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, respectively.
Modi left for Singapore yesterday afternoon. The special aircraft, Flight AI 001, carrying Modi took off at about 2pm from the KL International Airport ( KLIA) here.
At the Bunga Raya Complex at KLIA, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called on Modi before the Indian Prime Minister left for Singapore.
After the meeting of about 30 minutes, Modi, Dr Wan Azizah and Anwar posed for a group photograph with several staff of the Indian High Commission in Malaysia.
Wan Azizah and Anwar accompanied Modi at a static guard- of-honour comprising 26 personnel from the First Battalion of the Royal Rangers Regiment led by Capt Abdul Munir Mohani alias Che Umar before Modi boarded the flight for Singapore.