Vietnam-Malaysia relations have been increasingly promoted in all areas including diplomacy, economy and national security, especially since the two sides established the strategic partnership in 2015, University of Malaya expert Collins Chong Yew Keat told Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
The expert pointed out that both Vietnam and Malaysia play an important and indispensable role in ASEAN, especially in the economic, diplomatic and security fields.
Against the backdrop of the unstable global and regional situation, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Vietnam is very significant, as the two countries face many common traditional and non-traditional difficulties and challenges, especially the East Sea issue, he said.
This visit aims to further strengthen the partnership, the long-standing friendship with Vietnam, he said.
He said that in the coming times, Vietnam and Malaysia should promote their cooperation to ensure supply chain stability, food security, development of green economy, digital economy and many other sectors.
Economic cooperation is one of the important areas for the two countries amid complex regional and global developments, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Vietnam was Malaysia’s second largest trading partner within ASEAN. Therefore, the two countries already have favorable conditions to continue having stronger cooperation stages in the coming times, especially in the fields of technology, semiconductors, digital technique, green economy and a number of other defense-related sectors.
He mentioned that Malaysia’s current strengths lie in a number of areas such as electronics, halal products, palm oil and especially energy which are critical for Vietnam’s economic development.
On defense and security, he said the two countries should strengthen their cooperation in facing common maritime challenges, especially by jointly promoting cooperation to promote and sign an East Sea Code of Conduct (COC) and this will be one of the priority areas for cooperation between the two countries in the future.
This article is originally published on lecourrier.vn
