Russian Security Council Secretary, Sergey Shoigu has met Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim as Moscow seeks to boost ties with Southeast Asia after its sudden rapprochement with the United States under Trump.
The two officials discussed the prospects for strengthening political, military, trade, economic, energy, and humanitarian cooperation, as well as expanding collaboration in space and nuclear energy.
Shoigu disclosed that the Russian delegation included representatives from various ministries and agencies.
The Russian delegation was represented by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, Russian Ambassador to Malaysia Naiyl Latypov, and Mikhail Petukhov, the Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.
The Russian Security Council press service clarified that the meeting also covered the prospects for enhancing political, military, trade, economic, energy, and humanitarian cooperation.
Shoigu also read out a message from President Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian leader conveyed his warm greetings and emphasized that Russian-Malaysian relations have traditionally been friendly. “The consolidation of our efforts will contribute to the development of our relations,” Shoigu outlined from Putin’s message.
“Basically, as for the meetings with the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, my colleagues, I can say that decisions have been made on the majority of the issues we expected to discuss.
Sergey Shoigu
Shoigu stated that special attention was paid to the energy industry, namely the nuclear energy sector. “Our delegation includes Rosatom officials who are engaged in specific talks with their colleagues,” he noted.
“We have achieved certain results in terms of a very important and promising initiative of ours, which has already been put into operation. I’m talking about the floating nuclear power plant in Pevek.”
Sergey Shoigu
On his part, Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim said that discussions with Shoigu focused on “several significant matters” pertaining to the relationship between both countries.
The Malaysian Prime Minister also shared his impressions from a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in September 2023.
He highlighted the EEF’s importance in expanding and strengthening economic cooperation between Malaysia and other participants.
In 2023, Russia was Malaysia’s eighth largest trading partner among European countries, with total bilateral trade increased by 15.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM14.22bil (USD3.1bil), compared to RM12.3bil (USD2.79bil) recorded in 2022.
In addition, the Malaysian Premier also expressed hope that the Russian Security Council Secretary’s visit would lay the foundation for fruitful cooperation between the two countries.
Shoigu Holds Talks With Malaysian Defense Minister
Additionally, Russian Security Council Secretary, Sergey Shoigu held talks with Malaysian Defense Minister, Mohamed Khaled Nordin as part of his official visit to Kuala Lumpur.
The discussions took place in the offices of the Malaysian Defense Ministry, where the parties addressed issues of global and regional security as well as military cooperation.
During his trip, Shoigu also held a series of talks with the country’s top officials, discussing pressing issues.
In particular, he met with Nushirwan Zainal Abidin, Director General of the National Security Council under the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office.
Shoigu, seen as influential in the decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022, also met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta this week.
Analysts told a news agency that, owing to the recent rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, countries are free to engage Russia with no fear of US reprisals due to sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
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