Malaysia and South Korea yesterday announced the establishment of a strategic partnership, promising to strengthen their cooperation on defense, trade, green energy, and critical minerals.
‘The upgrade was announced yesterday by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during a meeting at the Yongsan Presidential Office in Seoul. Anwar was on a three-day visit to South Korea that concludes today.
In a joint statement, the two leaders praised the progress in their relations over recent decades and announced the establishment of a Strategic Partnership, “signifying the commitment of both countries to expanding cooperation to new horizons so as to promote freedom, peace, and prosperity and to addressing the pressing challenges moving forward.”
The statement also laid out a characteristically sweeping and ambitious program of bilateral cooperation. This included promises to improve defense exchanges and an agreement “to continue to explore ways to work together for research and development (R&D), military technology cooperation, and the defense industry.” This development follows the signing in May 2023 of an agreement for South Korea to provide Malaysia with 18 FA-50M light fighter jets valued at approximately $920 million, as part of its efforts to modernize the Royal Malaysian Air Force.
The two sides are also targeting an increase in trade and investment, and announced that they had plans to conclude a free trade agreement by next year, when they will celebrate the 65th anniversary of their relations. The joint statement said that both sides hoped to use the FTA “to facilitate cooperation not only in the fields of trade and investment, but also in emerging areas such as the digital economy, the green economy, and the bioeconomy.”
Malaysia and South Korea already conduct substantial amounts of trade; Malaysia is South Korea’s third-largest trade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the countries’ bilateral trade volume reaching $25 billion in 2023. South Korea is Malaysia’s eighth-largest trade partner.
Malaysia has also been keen for some time to attract “high-value, high-growth” investment from South Korean firms, with the Malaysia Investment Development Authority previously identifying the chemical and petrochemical sector as an area of particular promise.
In a separate meeting yesterday with Korean business leaders, Anwar pitched Malaysia as an attractive destination for South Korean capital. According to a Malaysian media report, the meeting was attended by participants representing 147 South Korean companies “from various sectors including semiconductor, electric vehicle, green technology, and artificial intelligence (AI).” Anwar was scheduled today to hold individual meetings with executives from major South Korean firms including Samsung Group, SK Nexilis, Posco Group, and Lotte International.
On the sidelines of the Yoon-Anwar meeting, officials from the two nations signed memorandums of understanding on critical mineral supply chains, carbon capture and storage technology, and tourism. According to their joint statement, the two leaders also reportedly discussed the growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon.