New Delhi, February 7 — Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed on a two-day official visit to Malaysia to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The Ministry of External Affairs said this is Mr. Modi’s third trip to Malaysia and his first since bilateral ties were elevated to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” in August 2024.
During the visit, India and Malaysia will explore defence-sector cooperation, with discussions expected to cover the potential sale of Dornier aircraft and maintenance support arrangements for Scorpene submarines and SU-30 fighter jets. Mr. Modi is also scheduled to meet members of the Indian diaspora in Malaysia and business leaders to deepen people-to-people and commercial links.
Malaysia hosts an Indian diaspora of about 2.9 million—the third-largest globally—and a person of Indian origin (PIO) community of roughly 2.75 million, the second-largest. The ministry noted Malaysia’s importance as a partner within ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific and its central role in India’s Act East Policy.
A symbol of the bilateral relationship, the Torana Gate in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, was gifted by India and jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi and then-Prime Minister Najib Razak on November 23, 2015.
India and Malaysia raised their relationship to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” during Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to India from August 19–21, 2024; the partnership had earlier been upgraded to an “Enhanced Strategic Partnership” in 2015 during Mr. Modi’s visit. Diplomatic relations between the two countries date back to 1957.
Recent high-level contacts include a meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Anwar on the margins of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6, 2025. Mr. Modi joined the 22nd ASEAN-India Summit in Kuala Lumpur virtually on October 26, 2025, and the two leaders held a telephone conversation on October 22, 2025.
(Report sourced from ANI; syndicated feed.)
