UK-Malaysia ties remain firm amid govt change

The UK will continue to support Malaysia in its reform agenda through the sharing of British expertise and experience

by AZREEN HANI/ pic credit: bmcc.org.my

THE relationship between Malaysia and the UK will remain firm, as it has a solid foundation to build on, despite a change in the UK government post its general election last week.

British High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay (picture) told The Malaysian Reserve that both Malaysia and the UK are now being presented with the opportunity to work together on common goals such as climate change and plastic waste issues.

“With both the UK and Malaysia sharing a common goal in tackling climate change and plastic waste, we have a unique opportunity to work together to address these global problems, ahead of the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference of Parties, which the UK will co-host with Italy in 2020,” he said.

He said the UK will continue to support Malaysia in its reform agenda through the sharing of British expertise and experience.

“On the defence front, we remain committed to the Five Powers Defence Arrangement (FPDA) which the UK and Malaysia are part of,” Hay added.

In addition, the commissioner also highlighted that currently, bilateral trade between the UK and Malaysia has increased by 10% to £5 billion (RM27 billion).

“We look forward to growing this even further,” said Hay.

He said that the warm UK-Malaysia relationship is evident in the two-way engagement at the highest level.

Last week, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah visited the UK and met with British ruler Queen Elizabeth II.

According to Hay, Prime Minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed also made working visits to the UK twice this year.

Meanwhile, Prince Edward The Earl of Wessex, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Estlin, as well as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, were among high-level visitors who visited Malaysia in the last 12 months.

Currently, there are 19,000 Malaysian students in the UK, with another 80,000 individuals studying for a UK qualification in Malaysia.

“An estimated 18,500 British nationals are living in Malaysia and approximately 360,000 British tourists visited Malaysia in 2018,” Hay said.

The British Embassy also added in a statement that, while the UK government is pursuing a new partnership with the European Union post-Brexit, PM Boris Johnson had said the UK remains globally engaged on important issues such as tackling climate change, global security, building academic and scientific cooperation and strengthening trading relationships.