MALAYSIA-INDIA TIES ON THE UPSWING IN LAST DECADE
From movies and culture, to trade and investment and fighting terrorism, bilateral ties between the two countries are at a ‘historic high’
THE latest Bollywood blockbuster, whose worldwide release coincided with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s visit to India, has as much of Malaysia as megastar Rajinikanth’s last year’s Tamil/Malay/Hindi hit and certainly more than Datuk Shah Rukh Khan’s
The new film has an Indian Muslim girl-turned-intelligence operative chasing an international drug trafficker through many Malaysian cities and eventually killing him in a Kuala Lumpur hospital.
The film’s unstated story is that its makers have, along with other places, woven the Malaysian locales and characters into the narrative without much ado.
After three Shah Rukh Khan films and Malaysia has emerged as India’s favourite tourist and filmmaking destination. This, too, has become commonplace.
Malaysia-India ties have always meant business — and, not just in money terms.
Amidst the dry nitty-gritty of trade and investment, fighting terrorism, promoting culture and education and much else, “Kollywood” and “Bollywood” provide the big glamour quotient, warming the unique people-to-people ties.
This became clearer than ever during the six-day visit that took Najib to Chennai, New Delhi and Jaipur.
The Tamil Nadu connect is crucial considering Malaysia has two million Tamils settled for ages. The new context is but natural, of Malaysian companies invited to invest there, especially in Chennai’s Free Trade Zone.
Back-and-forth, the ties are as new as they are old. “Honouring a shared heritage. PM @narendramodi receives PM @NajibRazak”, was how the Indian Foreign Office heralded their meeting.
Kalbelia dancers enthralled the visitors in Jaipur, where Najib also discussed infrastructure and investment with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia. The venue was a heritage hotel that was once the principal of the Maharajah of Jaipur.
Najib lauded the economic reforms initiated by Vasundhara’s government, achieving an impressive 12.38 per cent growth, well above the national average, in the financial year 2015-16.
The modern met the traditional when Najib pitched for more investments in Rajasthan, even as he welcomed its ancient wellness expertise in Ayurveda.
A pact was inked by National Institute of Ayurveda and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia. The two will exchange faculty members and students and focus on introducing diploma-, degree- and post-graduate degree-level courses in Ayurveda and special training courses in Panchakarma therapies.
A small but significant outcome of Najib’s moving to Rajasthan was some handsome, well-illustrated play in Hindi media that generally stays shy of foreign affairs.
Pranab Mukherjee, who was India’s principal economic pointsperson for long and will complete five years as the president in July, placed the bilateral ties in perspective, noting they had been on the upswing in the last decade.
Reciprocating, Najib said India had always supported Malaysia in difficult times. Talking trade within a time frame, he said Malaysia would like to cross US$15 billion (RM66.5 billion) bilateral trade by 2020. He strongly urged the early conclusion of the mega free-trade agreement — the
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2017 Regional Cooperation for Economic Partnership among AsiaPacific nations.
Signing six agreements, and Malaysian investments worth US$36 billion signed, understandably, he placed the bilateral ties at a “historic high”.
With terrorism becoming a global phenomenon, both sides felt compelled to reiterate their short-, medium- and long-term objectives.
“Malaysia and India will cooperate to fight the IS (Islamic State) and deal with radicalisation. We will also share our experience of deradicalisation with India. We plan to hold a major conference on de-radicalisation jointly,” Najib said.
“We appreciate the greater role of India in the maritime security of the Asia-Pacific region,” he said in comments that cannot be over-emphasised.
Both the countries have been demanding freedom of navigation in the Southeast Asian region, where China has been flexing muscles and has claimed most of the South China Sea.
Nothing explicit was said, but Najib’s visit coincided with one by the Dalai Lama to Tawang in India’s northeastern region that China claims.
Both sides signed agreements on air services, sports, human resources, palm oil production and research, and technological development.
An agreement will allow India to build a fertiliser plant in Malaysia. Modi described it as an important development. He invited Malaysia to participate in a bigger way in India’s infrastructure sector.
Defence ties have come to cover training and maintenance in military areas. Modi also highlighted educational cooperation saying “Mutual recognition in educational degrees is a landmark development”.
A bilateral joint statement issued by the India-Malaysia CEO Forum emphasised the need for visa-free travel for Indians and Malaysians as travel and tourism in both countries contribute to