Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim witnessed the exchange of MoUs between India and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. (DPR PMO/ANI photo)
KUALA LUMPUR: India and Malaysia have signed 11 MoUs at Seri Perdana, the official residence of the Malaysian Prime Minister, with Anwar Ibrahim and Narendra Modi describing it as a “critical, strategic and important exchange” to strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership.Key agreements include the Exchange of Notes (EoN) in the semiconductor sector, where the two countries are actively cooperating to promote value chains including artificial intelligence and research and development. An agreement was announced between India’s NPCI International Ltd (NIPL) and Malaysia’s PayNet at a press conference following the signing of the agreement.
“It is yet to become operational due to some necessary technical adjustments,” East secretary P Kumaran said. He added that there is also a broader multi-point connectivity project called Project Nexus; India, Malaysia, Singapore and a number of other countries in the region are working on it. This will provide direct connectivity from one country to all other countries participating in Nexus.On the issue of timelines for trade settlement in local currency, Kumaran said: “This is a priority for both parties and discussions are ongoing between the two regulators, the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of India. We will be working on this very actively in the coming months.”On the defense front, the two Prime Ministers emphasized their willingness to strengthen cooperation and expressed satisfaction with the outcomes of the Maldives-India Defense Cooperation Committee (MIDCOM) and its subcommittees, including the establishment of terms of reference for the Strategic Affairs Working Group (SAWG) and the Su-30 Forum.Importantly, India has 30 years of experience with the Su-30 and its proximity to Malaysia makes it the best country for upgrades and maintenance. This also includes the broader defense industry agenda beyond transactional procurement.Other agreements include areas such as disaster management, anti-corruption, healthcare, Ayurvedic training, counter-terrorism, UN peacekeeping and the Big Cat Alliance Framework Agreement. Both parties also agreed to cooperate on social security through an agreement between the Social Security Organization of Malaysia and the Employees State Insurance Corporation of India.
