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Context: Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh held a Video Conference with Senior Defence Minister of Malaysia, YB Dato 'Seri HishammuddinTun Hussein on June 27, 2022. A wide range of issues concerning bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation were discussed during the meeting.

More on the news:

• Both Ministers expressed the intent to further boost the already strong India-Malaysia Defence cooperation.
• The two Ministers discussed the existing defence cooperation activities and framework, and ways to further enhance them under the existing Malaysia India Defence Cooperation Meeting (MIDCOM) framework.
• The next MIDCOM is scheduled to held in July 2022, and it was decided to use this platform for a deeper engagement in defence.
• Shri Rajnath Singh highlighted the areas in which Indian Defence industries could assist Malaysia. He suggested a visit of senior officers from Malaysia to India to get a first-hand experience of the facilities and products of Indian Defence industry.
• The Malaysian Senior Defence Minister expressed the need for inducting women personnel in peace keeping missions. Both sides agreed to engage each other on this issue. It was also agreed to upgrade capability for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
• Raksha Mantri also invited Senior Defence Minister of Malaysia to visit India at an early convenient date to discuss closer and strategic defence ties.

Brief summary of India-Malaysia relations:

• India established diplomatic relations in 1957 immediately after Malaysia’s independence.
• The two countries enjoyed a strong relationship in the 1960s as a result of the personal friendship between Prime Ministers Nehru and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.
• Presently, India and Malaysia have developed close political, economic and socio-cultural relations. There is a considerable goodwill for India in Malaysia at people to people level, which hosts the third largest PIO community in the world.
• India and Malaysia are witnessing growing engagements in all aspects of bilateral relationship, including political, economic and trade, defence and security, tourism and education, health, human resources, public administration, etc.
• During the visit of former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2010, it was agreed to establish a Strategic Partnership and during PM Narendra Modi visit in 2015 it was strengthened to Enhanced Strategic Partnership.
• The following institutional mechanisms have been established between India and Malaysia:
• Joint Commission Meeting
• Foreign Office Consultations
• India-Malaysia Defence Cooperation Meeting
• India-Malaysia CEOs' Forum
• The two countries have signed a number of Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding from time-to-time in different sectors.
• A bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) covering goods, services and investment has come into effect from 1 July 2011. India and ASEAN have also signed an FTA covering goods, services and investment.
• In 2018-19, the bilateral trade was US$ 17.24 billion, with India’s exports being US$6.43 billion and imports being US$ 10.81 billion.
• Malaysia has emerged as 13th largest trading partner for India while India figures among the ten largest trading partners for Malaysia.
• As DPIIT, Malaysia ranks as the 24thlargest investor in India with FDI inflow of US$ 932.19 million which constitutes 0.22% of total FDI inflows of US$ 421 billion into India during the period April 2000 to March 2019.
• India’s defence relations with Malaysia have gained momentum during recent years. The MoU on Defence Cooperation signed in 1993 is the cornerstone of defence relations between the two countries.
• About 2,000 Indian students are studying in Malaysia, while an estimated 4,000 Malaysian students are studying in India, mostly medicine.
• The Indian Scholarship and Trust Fund was created in 1946 by PM Nehru to benefit and assist Malaysian-Indian students on an annual basis.
• India and Malaysia signed a MoU on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine in October 2010. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy systems are practiced in Malaysia.
• A new Indian Cultural Centre, Kuala Lumpur, under ICCR was established in February 2010 which conducts classes in Carnatic Vocal, Kathak dance, Yoga, Hindi language and Tabla by trained teachers from India and Malaysia. The Centre was renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose ICC by our PM during his visit to Malaysia in November 2015.
• Total number of Persons of Indian Origin is around 2.75 million (about 9% of Malaysia’s population). 90% of PIOs speak Tamil and the rest speak Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, etc.
• Malaysia has been sending the largest contingent to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
• There are approx. 2,25,000 NRIs in Malaysia.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1837352

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