Malaysia wants to maintain ties with all countries, says minister

 

Saifuddin Abdullah said the Afghanistan ambassador has not been told to leave and it was indication that Malaysia wanted to continue its relationship with the Taliban-held country.

PETALING JAYA: Two days before the Cabinet is due to decide on the country’s stand in regards to Taliban-held Afghanistan, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said it is always Malaysia’s policy to forge diplomatic relations with all countries.

Fielding questions after a webinar today, Saifuddin however reiterated that a decision on Afghanistan will only be made at Friday’s Cabinet meeting.

“Of course, our principle is we want to maintain relations with all countries,” he said during the forum “Adapting to Covid-19: Malaysian foreign policy priorities for the new world”, organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.

“On Afghanistan, we have not decided our stand. (But) we stand together with the Afghan people, of course.

“On Sept 13, the United Nations secretary-general is organising a pledging conference and we will also participate. But to what extent we are going to pledge (or) what we are going to pledge, will only be decided this Friday.”

Saifuddin had yesterday said that he would raise the Afghanistan issue with the Cabinet at the meeting in two days’ time.

The Taliban captured Kabul on Aug 15 and seized control of Afghanistan for the first time in 20 years, after the US military retreated from the country.

Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani also fled the country.

Saifuddin, who was sworn in as foreign minister on Aug 30, was previously reported to have said that Malaysia was taking a cautious approach on its stand towards the new regime in Afghanistan.

Today, Saifuddin said the Malaysian government did not ask Afghanistan ambassador to Malaysia Dr Moheb Rahman Spinger to leave after the Taliban takeover.

“That was really a signal that we value our relations with Afghanistan.

“I’m not so sure if he (Moheb) has received his credentials from Kabul but we are not going to ask him to leave because we understand that sometimes, governments may need some time to make new decisions on diplomatic representatives and so on.

“But we value our relations with Afghanistan for the longest time and we want to continue (it),” he said.

Saifuddin added that he had spoken to the Qatar foreign minister yesterday and would be contacting the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary-general later today.

“This is to look at what Malaysia can do through the OIC, with Afghanistan being a member and that we have always been very active under the OIC platform.”

On the Myanmar situation, the minister said Malaysia was “still very concerned” that Asean’s special envoy to end the violence in Myanmar, Erywan Yusof of Brunei, has yet to be invited to the country.

“I can only say we are frustrated that the five-point consensus could not be implemented as quickly as possible and the fact that the special envoy has yet to be able to go to Myanmar.

“I’ll be contacting him (Erywan) again and see what else we can do and how fast we can push this.”

In April, Asean announced a five-point consensus towards resolving the crisis, although no time frame was agreed upon.

This was towards ending violence, holding a constructive dialogue among all parties, a special Asean envoy to facilitate the dialogue, acceptance of aid and a visit by the envoy to Myanmar.

However, Reuters reported that people in Myanmar criticised the agreement between the country’s junta chief and Southeast Asian leaders, saying it fell short of restoring democracy and holding the army accountable for hundreds of civilian deaths.

Saifuddin was concerned that the hold-up was causing further delays over humanitarian assistance being sent into the conflict-torn country. - FMT