India Business Centre in High Commission Premises

India-Malaysia Relations

India and Malaysia have age-old political and cultural ties which predate the advent of Christianity, marked by mercantile links, which brought in its wake the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism to the Malay Peninsula. India established formal diplomatic relations with Malaysia in 1957. The year 2007-08, marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Malaysia.

Bilateral relations have been close and friendly with frequent high level visits between the two countries. Indian Presidents have visited Malaysia many times – Dr. Rajendra Prasad in 1958, Mr. V.V. Giri in 1973, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali in 1977 and Vice Presidents, Dr. Zakir Hussain in 1966 and Mr. Krishan Kant in 1997 (G-15). In recent times, Prime Minister V.P. Singh visited Malaysia in 1990, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1995, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001 and in 2003 and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in December 2005 to attend the 4th India-ASEAN Summit and first East Asia Summit. On the Malaysian side, the King of Malaysia (Agong V) visited India in 1974. Prime Minister Mahathir visited India in 1983, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996 and in October 2002. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi visited India in December 2004.

The cooperation between the Parliaments of India and Malaysia has been long-standing. There have been frequent visits by the parliamentarians from India to Malaysia and Malaysia to India. In recent times, the Hon’ble Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Mr. K. Rahman Khan led a delegation of five members to Malaysia from 19th to 24th September, 2004. Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee visited Kuala Lumpur in April 2005.  He also participated with 54-member delegation at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) held in Kuala Lumpur from 1-9 August 2008. The Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives of Malaysia led a 10-member delegation to India from 3rd to 8th November, 2004. This was followed by the visit of the Speaker of House of Representatives Tan Sri Dato’ Ramli Ngah Talib from 25thJuly 2005 with a 9-member delegation. In 2007, he had also led a 32-member Parliamentary delegation to the 53rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, New Delhi.

Indian Parliament has also been providing training slots to Malaysian parliamentary officials to the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST) continuously. Over 30 Malaysian parliamentary officials have undergone training at BPST.