Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed his gratitude to President Vladimir Putin for the rare honour of meeting and holding comprehensive discussions aimed at elevating bilateral ties to a significantly higher level.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Moscow on Wednesday (May 14), Anwar also reaffirmed that Russia remains a close friend of Malaysia, with diplomatic relations between the two countries established since 1967.
00:00...to Russia, and the talks we have held today is a great sign that Russia-Malaysian relations are on the uprise.
00:11They are successfully and consistently developing, and both parties are sincerely interested in seeing this cooperation becoming more substantive and more productive.
00:23And we have all the necessary preconditions for that.
00:29Russia and Malaysia are connected by many years of friendship and mutual understanding.
00:35We have always strived to regard the interests of each other, to work as partners, to develop relations based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.
00:49It is in this key our countries maintain regular political contacts.
00:55We carry out coordination between our foreign ministries, other ministries, security councils, and special services.
01:03We actively develop inter-parliamentary and inter-regional contacts, and I would like to say that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is making a big personal contribution towards development of Russian-Malaysian equal partnership and its economic dimension, first of all.
01:24I would like to remind you that last year he attended as a guest of honor the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, and tomorrow he will travel to Tatarstan, where he will participate in the International Economic Forum, Russia-Islamic World in Kazan.
01:42But coming back to our today's conversation, I would like to emphasize that we discuss entire array of our bilateral cooperation and also urgent matters of the global agenda.
01:58And we have come up with plans to strengthen Russian-Malaysian cooperation in the near future, and we are going, we prioritized and focused on the development of trade and investment cooperation.
02:13After the year 2024, the trade turnover between Russia and Malaysia exceeded $3.2 billion.
02:19The Intergovernmental Economic Commission is also working actively.
02:28We agree that its next session is going to take place in the Auton and Malaysia.
02:33The key area of bilateral cooperation between our countries is energy.
02:37Malaysian petroleum concern is a part of the investment package, and Gazprom also developing relations with this company.
02:52Our country is supplying significant amounts of oil products and coal to the Malaysian market.
02:59We see it promising to develop joint projects in gas and in peaceful use of nuclear energy in Malaysia.
03:09Plan to produce synthetic rubbers is operating efficiently.
03:13It was built with Russian assistance.
03:18And mineral fertilizers are also supplied for the Malaysian agriculture industry from Russia.
03:24We are enhancing Russian wheat supplies to Malaysia, and our producers are interested in enhancing high-quality meat and products and dairy to Malaysia that would correspond to the halal standard.
03:42We also cooperate in the cultural and humanitarian fields we regularly hold joint movie festivals, concerts, exhibitions.
03:54Russia assists Malaysia in training highly-qualified personnel.
03:59Currently, some 700 Malaysian nationals are receiving education in our country, including via the state-funded scholarships.
04:08Between our universities, we have more than 80 agreements on scientific cooperation and academic exchanges.
04:19Diplomas of the Russian universities are recognized by Malaysian employers without any additional exams.
04:26In Malaysia, they pay a lot of attention to teaching Russian language.
04:33It is currently being taught at the Aviation Technology Malaysian Institute under the joint program with the Russian educational institutions.
04:47And also, it is being taught in the oldest university of Malaysia.
04:52We are also enhancing tourist exchanges.
04:55Malaysia is becoming more and more popular as a tourist destination for the Russian nationals.
04:59We are developing possibility on launching direct flights between our states, which will help us to enhance our humanitarian and business context.
05:11The discussion about regional and global issues showed that our positions in this regard are very close or overlapping.
05:21We stand for the supremacy of international law, sovereignty, and uninterference into domestic affairs.
05:27We coordinate our efforts on the key multilateral platforms, including the UN.
05:37Last year, when Russia presided over BRICS, we introduced a new category of partner states.
05:45And Malaysia, among other countries, received an invitation to join BRICS activities in this capacity.
05:51We are happy that our Malaysian friends accepted this invitation, and we will do everything to make sure that Malaysia quickly and organically joined the activities of all the partnership mechanisms within BRICS.
06:05We also discussed in detail.
06:07We also discussed in detail all the matters related to the peaceful development of the Asian Pacific region, considering that Malaysia is currently chairing over the ASEAN organization.
06:22We also discussed prospects for further development of the dialogue between these international organizations and Russia.
06:32In conclusion, I would like to commend the results of our joint effort today, our joint effort with Mr. Anwar.
06:45He is going to continue his visit to Russia.
06:48As I've mentioned, tomorrow he is going to travel to the Republic of Tatarstan.
06:52And I'm convinced that this busy visit by Prime Minister will help us to bolster the Russian-Malaysian partnership for the benefit of our countries.
07:04Thank you for your attention.
07:05Thank you, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, and on behalf of my delegation, I would express my profound appreciation and thanks to the wonderful hospitality of this great country with a great history, civilization, culture and the arts,
07:26and the history of enduring struggle, and the history of enduring struggle of the people who believe in dignity and independence.
07:36I've said this to President Putin, that my admiration extend beyond diplomatic engagements, but because of my understanding of the history and culture and the great contribution
07:53in the field of education in the arts, in the field of literature, in the arts, and the ballet, which I happen to miss because of the hectic schedule.
08:03We have had extensive discussions from the morning, and then later move to the Prime Minister, and finally, of course, with the President and his team,
08:13and covering a wide spectrum of issues, from education to agriculture and food security, to agri-commodity, science technology, cyber security, energy defense, among others.
08:29That shows that our commitment to enhance bilateral relations beyond what we have achieved thus far.
08:37It's true, the President has stated in such clarity, that the relations have been good, but the potential for investments, trade, and collaboration need to be further enhanced,
08:52and that's precisely the reason why I choose to come first to Vladivostok as his guest, and now to Moscow and Kazen.
09:00And the Joint Commission's various committees, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, has to then ensure that it affects these changes and take the necessary action speedily.
09:19Of course, we would appreciate this increasing support in terms of training, aerospace, STI, and TVET, digital AI,
09:34which the President and the team have been extremely kind to regard us as a trusted friend and country that they can place a lot of support,
09:46and I think at this stage of development, however vigorous in semiconductor AI fields,
09:55we would certainly want to collaborate with the Russian Federation to enhance this.
10:01There were some outstanding issues due to geopolitical dictates,
10:07but we have taken the position of centrality in Malaysia and ASEAN to decide for ourselves what is best for Malaysia and its people.
10:20And therefore, we would like to request and suggest that the Russian airlines, including Aeroflot,
10:27to resume direct flight route to Malaysia as soon as possible.
10:34And thank you again, President, for the support for our entry to BRICS.
10:42And I remember, I recall, from France, from China to Ethiopia, South Africa,
10:51saying that you made that initial proposal, and we Malaysians admire and, of course, appreciate very much.
11:00We did discuss a number of international issues.
11:03We are firm on this multilateral arrangements, based on rule-based multilateral arrangements,
11:13and therefore, we have to proceed based on that principle.
11:20We do not accept unilateral action of countries,
11:24because it would disrupt the regiments and the peace and security of our region and the world.
11:33So I, again, President Putin, want to assure you that Malaysia placed a lot of, not only expectations,
11:45but hope that this sort of special relationship with Russia and the Russian Federation would be affected through meaningful exchanges and programmes.
12:00I, on behalf of the government, the people, of course, would wish and would think it is a major and great,
12:07I should say, prize for the people of Malaysia, if you can have President Putin in Malaysia as soon as possible,
12:20or the latest East Asian Summit during ASEAN in October.
12:26But I can assure you that your presence in Malaysia will be a major breakthrough,
12:33and not only relationship with Malaysia, but the region,
12:37because I believe many people in the region have very high respects and expectations of your role and your leadership.
12:57Thank you very much, esteemed Prime Minister.
13:00I would like to thank you for this visit.
13:02It was very productive.
13:04It is not over for you yet, even though since early in the morning today,
13:10you had a lot of meetings in the government, and here we exchanged a lot of information, shared a lot of opinions.
13:18This is true.
13:19We have had very warm, very trust-based relations,
13:25and Mr. Prime Minister mentioned that he's interested in history and culture of Russia,
13:30and we appreciate this a lot as well.
13:33And I have just told Mr. Prime Minister what St. Andrew's Hall is.
13:40There are three thrones there, and I asked Prime Minister,
13:45so there are three thrones.
13:47One of them is for Tsar.
13:50The second one is for his wife.
13:52And what do you think, the third throne, what is it for?
13:57Who is it for?
13:58And without even thinking, Prime Minister said, for the second wife.
14:05I hope he is not angry at me for saying these things.
14:12But this is an answer of a true Muslim, of a true representative of Islamic culture.
14:18I have to say that our traditional values maybe are not the same,
14:23but the exchange of information is always useful for both parties.
14:28Thank you very much.
14:30I have to respond.
14:33I only have one wife, Mr. President.
14:37But I was, I was, I failed, because the President actually tested me, and it's a trick.
14:43He asked me, I mean, for, he asked me, there's three chairs in the throat, you see.
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