2023 Marks a Reset in India-Malaysia Relations

With Indian Protection Minister Rajnath Singh’s maiden go to to Kuala Lumpur earlier this week, Malaysia has now hosted ministers from two pivotal Indian ministries in lower than two months. In early June, Minister of State for Exterior Affairs V. Muraleedharan met his Malaysian counterparts.

Such visits are supposed to sign a excessive in bilateral relations following the turbulence in 2019, arising from then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comment about Kashmir and India’s Citizenship Modification Act. The visits this 12 months point out renewed dedication to elevated ties and deeper cooperation to handle new and sophisticated shared challenges.

Throughout the assembly between Rajnath and Malaysian Protection Minister Mohamad Hasan, each side mentioned alternatives to strengthen protection cooperation and improve the utility of present mechanisms, such because the India-Malaysia Protection Committee.

Additionally notable was the signing of the change of letters to amend the 30-year-old memorandum of understanding on bilateral protection cooperation. It will allow extra bilateral actions between all three navy companies sooner or later.

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This comes after a big 12 months for India-Malaysia protection cooperation. The 2 nations performed three joint workouts in 2022: air pressure train Udara Shakti, naval train Samudara Laksamana, and armed forces train Harimau Shakti.

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Rajnath and Mohamad expressed a need to boost defense-related science, expertise and business cooperation, together with on upkeep, restore, and overhaul (MRO). In addition they mooted the organising of a strategic affairs working group and a “Su-30 discussion board” to share data and greatest practices on working and sustaining the the Soviet-developed plane – which each India and Malaysia operated. The Su-30 discussion board has been below dialogue since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2015 go to to Malaysia.

One other vital however anticipated growth was the inauguration of the primary regional workplace of Indian public sector enterprise (PSU) firm Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted (HAL) in Kuala Lumpur. This “Navratna” (firms that may make investments as much as 10 billion Indian rupees or 15 p.c of their internet price on a single mission with out searching for approval from the federal government) workplace can be a hub for engagement with the broader Southeast Asian area and act as a gateway for different Indian protection PSUs.

The concept for this workplace was put forth when HAL took half in a world tender to provide the Royal Malaysian Air Pressure (RMAF) with fighter jets. Whereas HAL misplaced out to Korea Aerospace Industries, as a producer of Russian Su-30 fighter plane, HAL continues to be strategically positioned to be engaged by the RMAF as an MRO service supplier – extra so now with the launch of the regional workplace and renewed discuss of the Su-30 discussion board.

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The go to and its tangible outcomes see a recent flip in India-Malaysia ties. Whereas navy workouts, inter-personnel cooperation, camaraderie, and capability constructing are common and outstanding facets of India-Malaysia protection cooperation, venturing into areas like protection business and protection science and expertise collaboration presents a chance for each nations not solely to diversify however elevate the bilateral and protection relationships past mere symbolism.

These developments, nonetheless, don’t alter the very fact that there’s a main missed alternative – India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).

Launched in 2019 as India’s holistic method to multifaceted cooperation within the Indo-Pacific, it’s one in every of New Delhi’s highest overseas coverage priorities. The IPOI outlines seven pillars: maritime safety; maritime ecology; maritime assets; capability constructing and useful resource sharing; catastrophe danger discount and administration; science, expertise, and educational cooperation; and commerce connectivity and maritime transport.

Two of Malaysia’s neighbors, Vietnam and the Philippines, have endorsed the IPOI and began cooperation with India by the framework. For Malaysia, within the context of larger protection and safety cooperation (each conventional and non-traditional), the IPOI is undoubtedly a priceless mechanism to leverage. By doing so, Malaysia would be capable to train its company as a related and bonafide actor within the Indo-Pacific by endorsing a mechanism aside from the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (with its immense symbolic worth when it comes to semantics and pragmatics) and dealing with a accomplice that has been attempting to refine and improve its method to the Indo-Pacific to handle challenges of maritime safety and catastrophe administration.

Throughout his June go to, Muraleedharan underlined that India is raring to work intently with Malaysia to implement the IPOI. He pressured that Malaysia is welcome to affix and cooperate inside any pillar of curiosity of the initiative.

Malaysian policymakers have to be cognizant of the truth that any try at enhancing relations would profit from Kuala Lumpur’s willingness to work throughout the IPOI framework.

Cooperation will be by a number of pillars which are a part of Malaysia’s medium- to long-term priorities, resembling disaster-risk discount and administration, to make sure it’s not merely lip-service or merely for the sake of optics.

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For the reason that diplomatic spat in 2019, we’re witnessing a much-awaited restart in relations by essential vistas of cooperation. Whereas policymakers on each side are optimistic, it’s prudent to form the trajectory of relations by being conscious of priorities, capabilities, and flashpoints within the relationship. Older patterns and narratives which have formed relations prior to now wouldn’t essentially work now. This realization is essential to make sure a stronger India-Malaysia relationship within the new decade.