{"id":88268,"date":"2024-08-08T15:52:58","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T05:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=88268"},"modified":"2024-08-08T15:52:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T05:52:58","slug":"under-anwar-malaysia-is-moving-away-from-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/under-anwar-malaysia-is-moving-away-from-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Anwar, Malaysia is moving away from the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Anwar Ibrahim would not be the first political dissident who has struggled with the transition from opposition to incumbency. In office, his grasp of complex policy issues, such as the South China Sea, has sometimes lacked depth, while his rhetoric often appears overblown.<\/p>\n

Since he became prime minister, in November 2022, Anwar has recast Malaysia\u2019s non-aligned, hedged foreign policy with his repeated embrace of neutrality<\/a> as his preferred setting for Malaysia, his reluctance to say anything but positive things about China and his visceral reactions to the Israel\u2013Hamas conflict.<\/p>\n

This matters to Australia because Malaysia is one of its longest-standing traditional security partners in Southeast Asia and facilitates Australian Defence Force access into the sub-region. Anwar\u2019s apparent anti-Western<\/a> and pro-China leanings will very probably make Malaysia harder to work with while he is in office. The country may be unreliable if there is a major regional security crisis involving China.<\/p>\n

So far, Anwar has not changed Malaysia\u2019s official defence and security settings. And members of Malaysia\u2019s armed forces generally prize their inter-personal and training ties with Western counterparts, including Australia.<\/p>\n

Also, outsiders had qualms about some of Malaysia\u2019s foreign policy proclivities under Anwar\u2019s predecessors. During former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad\u2019s long tenure (1981 to 2003, and 2018 to 2020), Malaysia often supported pan-Asianist and pan-Islamic initiatives and sentiments, while also sharply criticising the policies of Western governments. Still, Kuala Lumpur maintained close, if low-profile military links to the United States while also husbanding its residual Commonwealth security ties, including its position in the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Britain.<\/p>\n

There is a further domestic political context to some of Anwar\u2019s foreign policy positioning. Nevertheless, doubts about Malaysia\u2019s trajectory have notably risen under his leadership.<\/p>\n

One obvious change factor is that the war in the Middle East has galvanised Anwar\u2019s heartfelt attachment to the Palestinian cause, leading him to lionise leaders of Hamas as \u2018freedom fighters\u2019 and to mourn its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as a \u2018dear friend\u2019 after his assassination by Israel. This intemperate tone, and Anwar\u2019s vitriolic outbursts<\/a> against US support for Israel, will make it difficult for him to move closer to Washington for the remainder of his time in office, regardless of who wins the US presidential election in November.<\/p>\n

Another hallmark of Malaysia\u2019s foreign policy under Anwar has been the prevalence of pro-China sentiments voiced by him and his cabinet, including on Taiwan and the South China Sea. Beijing\u2019s openly aggressive treatment of the Philippines and the near-permanent Chinese physical presence in Malaysia\u2019s exclusive economic zone are overlooked.<\/p>\n

On 19 June, during a visit of Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Malaysia, a joint statement by the two countries said, \u2018Malaysia recognizes that Taiwan is an inalienable territory of the People\u2019s Republic of China, in order for China to achieve national reunification and thus will not support any call for the independence of Taiwan.\u2019 This unambiguous siding with Beijing prompted a protest<\/a> by Taipei\u2019s foreign ministry.<\/p>\n

Anwar said in June that Malaysia had applied through Russia (in its current capacity as chair) to join the BRICS grouping, another signal of Kuala Lumpur\u2019s willingness to align with China and Russia on the international stage. China\u2019s state media has unsurprisingly welcomed the application. BRICS has notably failed to attract prominent new members, such as Argentina or Indonesia, and is now widely seen as a moribund forum, which even India, a founder member, has downgraded in its foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan\u2019s statement<\/a> at the July ASEAN meeting of foreign ministers in Laos was a concerning precursor to what might be coming next year as Kuala Lumpur takes the reins as ASEAN\u2019s rotating chair. In what was widely seen as a rebuke of the Philippines\u2019 diplomatic efforts to enlist international support for its stand against China\u2019s encroachment in the South China Sea, Hasan said, \u2018If any ASEAN member \u2026 attempts to bring in external influence to solve its problems, it will lead to uncertainty in the Southeast Asian region.\u2019<\/p>\n

Malaysia\u2019s desire to exclude other countries, such as Australia, Japan and the United States, from South China Sea disputes aligns with China\u2019s preferences. It also helps China\u2019s behind-the-scenes efforts to influence negotiations with ASEAN on a code of conduct for the South China Sea. It is particularly concerning that Anwar\u2019s foreign minister explicitly equated the exclusion of countries apart from ASEAN members and China with the concept of ASEAN centrality.<\/p>\n

Malaysia\u2019s foreign policy tilt under Anwar naturally raises questions about its long-term value as a bilateral and multilateral security partner to Australia. Along with other ambivalent signals from ASEAN capitals, it should prompt an honest reappraisal of the Australian government\u2019s determination to accord Southeast Asia a general priority within foreign policy. The Philippines and Vietnam aside, it\u2019s not clear that beyond the ritual airing of ASEAN-centric bromides there is a collective vision or prize on offer to justify the ongoing level of diplomatic investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anwar Ibrahim would not be the first political dissident who has struggled with the transition from opposition to incumbency. In office, his grasp of complex policy issues, such as the South China Sea, has sometimes …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":88269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,52,601,102,370,471],"class_list":["post-88268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-malaysia","tag-philippines","tag-south-china-sea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnder Anwar, Malaysia is moving away from the West | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/under-anwar-malaysia-is-moving-away-from-the-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Under Anwar, Malaysia is moving away from the West | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anwar Ibrahim would not be the first political dissident who has struggled with the transition from opposition to incumbency. 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