Daily Times

Pakistan and Malaysia on Thursday agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in multiple areas including trade, investment, defence, and agriculture, besides reiterating their strong positions on regional issues including Gaza and Kashmir.

In a joint press stakeout following their one-on-one meeting and delegation-level talks, both prime ministers told the media that their discussions focused on strengthening the bilateral collaboration in multiple areas of mutual interest as well as regional and international issues, including Palestine and Kashmir.

As part of the efforts to boost bilateral trade, both leaders agreed that Pakistan would export Halal meat worth $200 million per annum and 100,000 metric tonnes of Basmati Rice to Malaysia.

Total trade between Malaysia and Pakistan stood at USD 1.4 billion with the trade goods included palm oil, apparel, textiles, chemical and chemical-based products, and electrics and electronic products. Among South Asian countries, Pakistan is Malaysia’s third-largest trading partner.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Shehbaz told the media that besides discussing the export of Pakistan’s Basmati Rice, two sides also discussed the possibilities of exporting Halal meat from Pakistan to Malaysia worth $200 million per annum, and assured that his country would make no compromise on the quality.

He said the Malaysian PM had also assured to address the discrepancies in the import of Pakistan’s rice into his country.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that they had a ‘wonderful’ meeting to discuss the enhancement of trade and investment, besides exploring avenues of further cooperation in defence, tourism, agriculture, green energy, skilled labour and youth empowerment.

He said both sides were unanimous in believing that the two countries would collectively find new heights in trade and investment cooperation for a bright future for two nations.

Assuring his cooperation to further enhance Pakistan-Malaysia defence and security cooperation, he said that thousands of Pakistani students were currently studying in Malaysia to help strengthen the people-to-people contacts.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that Malaysia’s development should be emulated as a role model for all Muslim countries where foreign direct investment and exports were on the increase.

He said that both sides also discussed the “heart-wrenching” and “heart-breaking” situation of Gaza where innocent children, men and women were being killed.

He said under the unparalleled genocide and carnage by Israeli forces, the cities were being demolished in Gaza and both sides stressed the immediate ceasefire.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that both sides discussed the Kashmir issue where people were being denied their right to self-determination despite rendering huge sacrifices for the last several decades. Thousands of Kashmiris have been martyred, many were in detention in 3rd class jails and made subject to severe punishment.

He expressed the hope that the Kashmiris would soon get their right to self-determination in light of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that both sides had agreed on a number of matters and follow-up discussions would be held in the upcoming joint commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur this month to ensure swift implementation of the decisions.

He assured that the Malaysian trade office would be opened in Karachi soon to strengthen economic collaboration between the two countries.

He said Malaysia was seeking more skilled labour in various sectors including IT, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors and Pakistan could also be a source for such skilled labour. The Malaysian PM said that Malaysia had agreed to import 100,000 tonnes of Basmati Rice from Pakistan.

Anwar Ibrahim appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz’s address at the United Nations General Assembly in which he had pleaded the case of Gaza effectively. He also appreciated Pakistan’s strong stance against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and escalation of hostilities on the Middle East by Israel. He said the ongoing aggression in Gaza and Lebanon was not a war between the two countries rather it was a disregard for international order and also questioned the inaction of the global community.

Prime Minister Ibrahim reiterated that Malaysia was committed to the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and believed in an amicable resolution of the dispute.

The two prime ministers also witnessed exchange of signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and a Letter of Cooperation. This included MoU between Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and Malaysia External Trade Development Cooperation (MATRADE) on trade cooperation, and MoU for cooperation in Halal trade between Pakistan-Malaysia Business Council (PMBC) of Pakistan and Malaysia-Pakistan Business Council (MPBC) of Malaysia.

A Letter of Cooperation between Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was also signed. Later, Prime Minister Ibrahim also presented the works of renowned poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal which were translated into Bahasa Melayu. He also presented an Urdu copy of his book titled “The Asian Renaissance.”