Malaysia, EU To Continue Work To Finalise PCA, FTA

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and the European Union (EU) have agreed to continue working towards finalising the Malaysia-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and the Malaysia–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) expeditiously. Head of the Malaysia Mission to the EU, Hasnudin Hamzah in conveying his commitment to further enhance bilateral relations to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk in their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (Feb 22), emphasised that the PCA and FTA were very high on Malaysia’s priority. A Wisma (Foreign Ministry) statement Thursday said the meeting was held after Hasnudin presented his letters of credence to Tusk at the President’s Salon of the Europa Building in Brussels. In the meeting, Hasnudin and Tusk acknowledged the existing good and friendly bilateral relations between the EU and Malaysia. "Both concurred that further improvement in various areas of common interest especially in economic and trade relations be explored," said the Wisma Putra statement. Hasnudin expressed the hope that the EU would give more attention to Malaysia, particularly in encouraging more business and investments flows from the EU into Malaysia. The statement said Tusk and Hasnudin also exchanged views on global challenges and regional issues of common concern. They shared views on the importance of working closely together on bilateral level and within the ASEAN-EU Dialogue cooperation framework by having regular dialogues and engagements at all levels to deal with the challenges to move forward Malaysia-EU and ASEAN-EU relations, it said. --BERNAMA