Prime Minister Narendra Modi is paying an official visit to Malaysia on February 7 and 8. Normally, the Prime Minister and ministers do not travel abroad during a parliament session. In this case, however, Modi has obviously chosen the dates carefully because parliament does not function over the weekend. He has therefore ensured that he will be available in India when parliament convenes on February 9.

India and Malaysia have a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The relationship was elevated to this level during Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to India in August 2024. Modi and Anwar Ibrahim showed a clear vision to take the bilateral relationship forward across a wide arc covering defence, political, economic, commercial and technical sectors. Significantly, Anwar Ibrahim overcame any reluctance there may have been in sections of the Malay community to improve ties with India. Dr Mahathir Mohamed who was Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003 and again in 2018-2019 was not exuberant about India despite his Indian ancestry. On the other hand, Anwar, who is also of Indian ancestry, has always favoured a positive and vibrant bilateral relationship between Malaysia and India to benefit all the people of the multi-ethnic country. It is a different matter that Mahathir’s return to the Prime Minister’s chair at the age of 93, after a gap of more than fifteen years,........

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