NEW DELHI, Sept 19 — Defence ministry officials from India and Malaysia discussed cooperation in various areas during their meetings in New Delhi.
The Malaysian Defence Ministry’s acting secretary general Mohd Yani Daud on Tuesday co-chaired with Indian defence secretary Giridhar Aramane the 12th meeting under the existing Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation Meeting framework.
“Both sides assessed the existing defence cooperation and held wide-ranging discussions on issues of mutual interest including regional issues. They explored effective and practical initiatives to further expand bilateral defence engagements,” India’s Defence Ministry said in a statement.
They agreed to establish a strategic affairs working group to formulate a consultative mechanism to handle all aspects of bilateral defence cooperation.
The Indian defence secretary shared an eight-point proposal with the Malaysian side to expand bilateral cooperation in areas such as government-level engagement, tri-service cooperation, training, UN peacekeeping, bilateral services engagement, defence industrial cooperation, research and development, as well as engagements on a regional level.
The last such meeting was held in 2018 as Covid-19 led to a curtailment in physical contacts for four years.
The Malaysian delegation also interacted with Defence Research and Development Organisation officials and identified areas of common interest.
The delegation will visit shipbuilder Mazagaon Dockyard Ltd and the Western Naval Command headquarters of the Indian navy in Mumbai on Wednesday.
On Monday, the 10th meeting of the India-Malaysia Joint Sub-Committee on Defence Science, Technology and Industry Cooperation was co-chaired by Rajeev Prakash, a joint secretary in the Indian Ministry of Defence, and Eris Jemadi Tajudin, an under-secretary at the Malaysian Ministry of Defence.
During this meeting, the existing defence research and industry cooperation between the two countries was reviewed and discussions were held on various other topics.
— Bernama
