MELBOURNE, Australia, 4 Mar (AP) \u2014 Malaysia\u2019s prime minister on Monday spoke up in defense of ties with China and complained over alleged pressure by the United States and its allies on regional nations to take sides in the West\u2019s strategic rivalries with Beijing.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s remarks came during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the Australian city of Melbourne, where Anwar is one of nine Asian leaders attending the gathering.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, China seems to be the leading investor into Malaysia,\u201d said Anwar and insisted that Malaysians \u201cdo not have a problem with China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are an independent nation, we are fiercely independent, we do not want to be dictated by any force,\u201d Anwar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo while we remain \u2026 an important friend to the United States and Europe and here in Australia, they should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbors, precisely China,\u201d he said, speaking at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a staunch U.S. ally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they have problems with China, they should not impose it upon us. We do not have a problem with China,\u201d Anwar told reporters.<\/p>\n
Anwar and Albanese announced several new bilateral agreements between Australia and Malaysia on cybersecurity, technology, clean energy, sports and education.<\/p>\n
When asked about the term \u201cChina-phobia\u201d that he first used in an interview last month with Financial Times, Anwar said he was responding to criticisms of Malaysia for \u201cgiving additional focus to China,\u201d its largest trading partner.<\/p>\n
The Philippines, an ASEAN nation, urged regional neighbors on Monday to stand together more strongly in upholding the rule of law in the South China Sea, where China is forcefully pursuing territorial claims in conflict with other nations.<\/p>\n
During a visit to the Philippines in November, Vice President Kamala Harris also urged countries to stand up for territorial integrity and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and said Washington would press an international campaign against \u201cirresponsible behavior\u201d in the disputed waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELBOURNE, Australia, 4 Mar (AP) \u2014 Malaysia\u2019s prime minister on Monday spoke up in defense of ties with China and complained over alleged pressure by the United States and its allies on regional nations to take sides in the West\u2019s strategic rivalries with Beijing. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s remarks came during the Association of Southeast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}