23 April 2015

Look back in friendship - The closeness between India and Malaysia is due for a revival

K.P. Nayar
April 23 , 2015

Countries unfailingly revel in celebrating anniversaries. India and Malaysia, however, are now doing their best to bury an anniversary that they share.

New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur, for all practical purposes, stopped engaging each other in 2010 after a period when the potential of their friendship appeared to be on the threshold of full bloom. Five years ago, Malaysia's prime minister, Mohammad Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, came to New Delhi and, only nine months later, his then Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, visited Kuala Lumpur.

If it appeared then that this was a model Asian friendship worthy of emulation, those who made such predictions could not be faulted. The highlight of Singh's discussions in Kuala Lumpur was an ambitious "Framework for Strategic Partnership", which envisaged a multi-faceted relationship in free flow.

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