Pandemic no barrier to strengthen foreign ties

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s international relations have remained largely unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.

He said global travel restrictions had not been a hurdle to maintain strong and friendly foreign ties, and cited the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual summit hosted by Kuala Lumpur late last year as testimony to this.

The prime minister said given a choice, he personally would have preferred eye to eye meetings.

However, he stressed that the global pandemic does not mean the government must pay less attention to maintaining bilateral relations.

By preserving strong and friendly ties, Malaysia will continue to enjoy the benefits of multilateral international cooperation, he said.

“Alhamdulillah, for instance, during the APEC summit that we successfully hosted, I interacted virtually with global leaders. Of course, I would have personally preferred physical visits, but it is (currently) not possible.

“And that is why the (Covid-19) vaccine roll-out is important. It is not solely for me or business delegations to go abroad, but once we are inoculated, we feel safer. Perhaps this would then lead to the opening of our borders and strengthen our foreign relations further, Insya-Allah,” he said in a special interview with Bernama and several other media organisations at his residence in Bukit Damansara here in conjunction with his first anniversary as prime minister.

Towards this end, the prime minister said a series of visits to strengthen bilateral ties have been planned in the next few months, beginning with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in March.