India and Malaysia on Tuesday agreed to upgrade their bilateral relations to a level of comprehensive strategic partnership after the growing political discussion between India’s premier, Narendra Modi, and Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim.
Spoke productively with Prime Minister @anwaribrahim of Malaysia. Assessing the entire spectrum of relations between our countries and given the rather vast interaction of our countries, we have agreed to upgrade the relationship between our countries to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. pic. twitter. https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1486578962152611079?s=19
The two countries signed several agreements, among which there were the agreements on the employment and the treatment of nationals employed in the territory of the other party and the agreement on the promotion of cooperation in the sphere of digital technologies. Ibrahim arrived in India on Monday night for a three-day working visit.
He is visiting India for the first time in his capacity as the prime minister.
“Today, we have decided that our partnership will be elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Modi said in his media statement.
The prime minister pointed out that the agreement on employment of workers will pave the way to recruit Indian workers and, at the same time, will ensure that the interests of the Indians are safeguarded.
Stressing the economic interaction between India and Malaysia, Modi said that bilateral trade is fast moving from dollars to rupees and the Malaysian currency ringgit.
To our mind, there are still a lot of opportunities for furthering economic cooperation. There is need to increase the volume of trade and investment between the two countries, he pointed out.
“We need to enhance interactions in emerging technology sectors, including semiconductor, fintech, defense, artificial intelligence, and quantum; we have underlined the need to fast-track the negotiating process of the CECA between India and Malaysia,” he said.
