NEW DELHI: India and Malaysia will boost cooperation in areas such as semiconductors, financial technology and defence production, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday ( Aug 20 ) after meeting his Malaysian counterpart, as the two countries look to reset ties.
Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated in the late 2019 following some comment made by mostly Muslim Malaysia’s then-prime secretary Mahathir Mohamad against New Delhi removing the independence of Kashmir, India’s just area with a Muslim majority.
That had an impact on India’s purchase of Indonesian palm oil.
Without stating what that may mean, Modi said,” We have decided that we will raise our cooperation to the level of” Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, noting that Malaysia invested US$ 5 billion in India in the prior year.
” In places which require new and modern technologies like silicon, banking, military business, AI and quantum systems, we will raise assistance”.
He noted that the two nations have also been conducting diplomatic trade in their ringgit and pound bills. As sanctions against nations like Russia expose it to its heavy reliance on the penny, India has been making efforts to improve the attractiveness of the rupees.
Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia, declared that his land had rekindle its relationship with India in all areas.
” There are so many places that we need to investigate more”, he said. Anwar and Modi both declined to respond to queries from the internet.  ,