PUTRAJAYA, March 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim received a courtesy call from the External Affairs Minister of India S. Jaishankar today, who is on a two-day official visit to Malaysia, which ends tomorrow.
He arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office in Perdana Putra at 2.30pm before both leaders proceeded to a meeting, which lasted for an hour.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said Anwar and Jaishankar exchanged views and discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, science and technology, education, agriculture, tourism, defence and digital, and regional issues, including Myanmar.
It said Anwar committed to facilitating the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) branch campus in Malaysia.
He 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.
Anwar looks forward to undertaking the visit soon, after India’s general elections in April and in June this year.
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).
— Bernama
