Malaysia happy with India as dialogue partner

By Amit Baruah

KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 15. The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said today that his country was ``very happy'' with India's current status as dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

His remarks come as a damper to India's hopes of enhancing its current status of a dialogue partner to the level of a summit- level interaction with ASEAN.

Asked if Malaysia, which is the country coordinator for India in ASEAN, was upset by India's opposition to Pakistan's entry into the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), Mr. Hamid said: ``No. I think in our decision-making process there is always consensus. Whatever decisions that we want to make are based on dialogue and consensus. Therefore, we will go along on that basis.''

As is well-known, Malaysia supports the entry of Pakistan both into the ARF and the IOR-ARC. It is also known to have opposed a summit-level meeting between India and ASEAN.

The Malaysian Foreign Minister said both Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had adopted a positive approach to make the Indian Prime Minister's visit a success, not one which resulted in ``empty words''.

``Both leaders find there is synergy between India's expertise and Malaysia's experience. Not only can we undertake projects within our two countries, but we should also work together outside in third countries. All matters have been agreed, all the MoUs have been signed,'' he said.

``Dr. Mahathir says he's very happy with the visit. Mr. Vajpayee also says that he's very happy because they find that all the talks, the discussions, whether in the Government sector or the private sector, have been very focused,'' he said.

Asked if the two countries had agreed on a mechanism to implement the various MoUs signed, Mr. Hamid said other than the Joint Commission meeting, which was on an annual basis, the private sector, the various chambers of commerce, should have their own machinery.

The Malaysian Government was also happy that the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had decided to open an office in Kuala Lumpur.

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