PM’s Malaysia tour to make up for lost time, lost chances

Sonia Trikha

New Delhi, April 30: IT WAS a visit that should have taken place on February 7, but the Gujarat earthquake intervened and now it will happen on May 13.
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee will travel to Malaysia on a three-day visit to Kuala Lumpur. The last time round, he would have visited Japan too, but now that will happen later this year.

Among the most important sectors for cooperation that may come up for discussion between Vajpayee and his counterpart Mahathir Mohamed, India will be focussing on defence and information technology. Before Vajpayee’s proposed visit in February, a delegation of Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain and military personnel was in Kuala Lumpur for a meeting of the Malaysia-India Defence Committee (MIDCOM).

The two sides had held detailed discussions to share information on operations relating to MiG 29 that both countries possess. This time too, India will focus on defence cooperation. And on February 7, the day Vajpayee was supposed to have arrived, Malaysia had signed two agreements with Pakistan to buy defence equipment worth $20.9 million. The equipment included surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons systems and other weapons.

The upcoming visit is important because Malaysia is India’s country coordinator within the ASEAN this year. Apart from trade links, political relations with Malaysia have been in limbo for years now but could be developed and upgraded. The last Indian prime minister to visit Malaysia was P.V. Narasimha Rao, in 1995.

According to sources, the slackness in relations in the past could also be attributed to Malaysia’s economic progress. The chasm in perception was largely bridged by the 1997 Asian economic crisis. As much as it brought parity in prosperity between South-East Asian countries and India, it also helped the view in ASEAN that India’s stick-in-the-mud approach to economic liberalisation may have been correct after all.

Another reason why Mahathir Mohamed will spend most of his time in Vajpayee’s company is the IT industry. Malaysia and India see a synergy between their booming hardware sector and India’s software talent. Malaysia has an active interest in developing infrastructure in India too. This, along with a strategic dialogue that includes the security of ASEAN sea-lanes as well as defence cooperation, should spell a tough three days of work towards forwarding India’s ‘‘look-east’’ policy.