PUTRAJAYA, March 27 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday received a courtesy call from the External Affairs Minister of India Dr S. Jaishankar, who is on a two-day official visit to Malaysia.
Jaishankar arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office in Perdana Putra at 2.30pm before both leaders proceeded to a meeting, which lasted about an hour.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a statement issued after the meeting said Anwar and Jaishankar exchanged views and discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, science and technology, education, agriculture, tourism, defence and digital, and also on regional issues including Myanmar.
According to PMO, Anwar gave his commitment to facilitate the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) branch campus in Malaysia.
Prime Minister also expressed appreciation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for assisting the country when Malaysia encounters shortage of rice and hopes for further facilitation on the import of agricultural produce from India.
Meanwhile, Jaishankar expressed India’s intention to strengthen India-ASEAN relations especially under Malaysia’s Chairmanship of ASEAN next year and reiterated Modi’s invitation for Anwar to visit India.
The Prime minister looks forward to undertake the visit soon, after India’s General Elections, PMO said.
The meeting was also attended by Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu and Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.
India was Malaysia’s 12th largest global trading partner last year with total trade amounting to RM77.76 billion (US$16.53 billion).
