KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN should remain\u00a0independent and as a zone of neutrality amid the heightened US and China rivalry, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.\u00a0
\nHe said this in an interview with China\u2019s national broadcaster CCTV aired on Friday\u2019s night. The interview was recorded during his three-day official visit to Beijing last week.
\nAnwar noted that ASEAN was formed to promote peace and stability in the region, and cooperation among its member states, and these\u00a0objectives should be maintained.\u00a0
\nMalaysia was one of the five founding members\u00a0of ASEAN when the grouping\u00a0was established in 1967.
\n\u201cThat position continues. We don\u2019t want the region to be the base for military competition. That position has been quite consistent although we remain friendly to all countries,\u201d he said in the\u00a0interview.\u00a0
\nHe said the region should not be the ground for power contest nor should it be allowed to be engrossed in unnecessary provocation arising\u00a0from the rivalry.
\nCiting AUKUS, Anwar said Malaysia has raised concern that the\u00a0trilateral security pact involving Australia, United Kingdom\u00a0and United States in the Indo Pacific would further aggravate the situation in the region.
\n\u201cThat is why Malaysia took a tougher line on this, and have been consistent in its\u00a0position since the beginning not to allow this situation to aggravate into military tension, or be deemed or seen to be provocative,\u201d he said.\u00a0
\nHe also urged China and the US to find amicable solution to their tensions.<\/p>\n
On the domestic front, Anwar said Malaysia\u00a0is now back on track following the actions of promoting good governance as the core of his administration in order to\u00a0drive further growth and development for the country.
\nHe said the government also focused on stamping out corruption and rid the country from that image.
\n\u201cWe have to act tough against this (corruption), because that alone will encourage investors.
\n\u201cMalaysia used to do relatively better in the 1990s, in term of growth, But it has slid downward for decades after the 1997 (financial) crisis. Now we are back on track,\u201d he said.\u00a0
\n— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN should remain\u00a0independent and as a zone of neutrality amid the heightened US and China rivalry, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.\u00a0 He said this in an interview with China\u2019s national broadcaster CCTV aired on Friday\u2019s night. The interview was recorded during his three-day official visit to Beijing last week. Anwar noted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":19640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nation-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19641,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions\/19641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}