KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is making efforts to hold a Special ASEAN-United States (US) Summit either in Malaysia or the US, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
He said this has been agreed upon at the ASEAN Foreign MInisters’ level to ensure ASEAN is not seen as leaning towards any particular country.
“We are trying to be balanced so that we don’t lean towards anyone because we already have the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit… so ASEAN will continue to drive the direction as an integrated ASEAN and continue to remain neutral and not take sides with anyone.
“At the special summit, we will present our wish list and listen to theirs because dealing with people like this (US President Donald Trump), they will want to listen to what we have,” he said in his winding-up debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address on behalf of his ministry at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Mohamad said Malaysia must not only be careful in managing its foreign policy and bilateral relations but also be vigilant in managing trade relations so that the country’s economy is not affected.
As such, he said Malaysia cannot ignore the good relations it has with the US, which is the country’s largest investor cumulatively.
“This is being done by the Foreign Ministry to navigate in an orderly manner because the Malaysia-US trade volume is RM324 billion for 2024, which is a very large trade volume.
“In terms of who benefits from the RM324 billion, Malaysia exports RM198 billion to the US and we import RM126 billion, so there is a RM70 billion trade surplus in our favour,” he said.
However, Mohamad said that the country’s foreign policy is essentially principled, where Malaysia will not support but condemn countries that practice apartheid policies, engage in genocide and commit crimes against humanity.
The Dewan Rakyat sitting continues tomorrow.
