Malaysia Iran Agree To Strengthen Bilateral Ties

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Foreign minister Mohamad Hasan with his Iranian counterpart Seyyed Abbas Araghchi (right) on his inaugural official visit to the country. (Facebook pic)
TEHRAN: Malaysia and Iran have agreed to explore and strengthen bilateral relations, particularly in trade, investment, education, health, and research, said foreign minister Mohamad Hasan.

He said the matter was agreed on during the 8th Malaysia-Iran Joint Commission Meeting which he co-chaired with his counterpart Seyyed Abbas Araghchi yesterday.
He said the meeting also enhanced the government-to-government relationship between Kuala Lumpur and Tehran, and business-to-business connections between the people of both countries.
“In terms of trade and business, we have identified (key areas) and will coordinate them through a joint economic commission meeting between the trade ministers of both countries, with Wisma Putra serving as the coordinating agency.
“Although Iran is under unilateral sanctions from the US, we cannot sever our bilateral relations. We need to explore ways to enhance cooperation in research, science, technology, health, and tourism, which are not subject to sanctions,” he told Bernama today.
Mohamad said this after meeting with staff members of the Malaysian embassy in Iran, before concluding his inaugural official visit which ran from Feb 25 to 27.
Mohamad said the Malaysia-Iran commitment to trade cooperation aligned with Wisma Putra’s policy, which oversees bilateral and multilateral relations and aims to open as many new markets as possible through trade diplomacy, reducing reliance on traditional markets.
On trade matters, Mohamad said Malaysia was looking to increase palm oil exports to Iran.
“They have expressed their willingness to import palm oil products. I stated that we no longer encourage the export of crude palm oil; instead, Malaysia aims to export refined palm oil in various forms, as this will add value to our exports. They have no issues with this.
“In fact, they suggested that we should seize the opportunity to position Iran as a gateway to the Central Asian market, as it remains largely untapped,” he said, inviting Iran to make Malaysia the country’s gateway for trade in Asean.
On education, Mohamad said he had asked the Iranian government to send more students to pursue bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in Malaysia to further solidify people-to-people relations between the countries.
In 2024, Iran was Malaysia’s seventh-largest trading partner in the West Asian region, with total trade valued at RM2.6 billion – a 24.6% increase from 2023.
Malaysia was Iran’s largest trading partner among Asean member states and its 19th largest globally in 2023.
Malaysia established its embassy in Tehran in 1970 while Iran opened its embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1981. - FMT

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