Outgoing Malaysian Envoy Hails Malaysia-United States Ties

By Manik Mehta NEW YORK, March 29 (Bernama) -- Awang Adek Hussin, the outgoing Malaysian ambassador in Washington DC, says US-Malaysian bilateral relations "could not have been better". Awang Adek, who will return home in the first week of April after a two-year stint as Malaysia’s envoy to the United States, said this “existing goodwill should be used to foster even closer ties” between the two nations. In an interview with Bernama, Awang Adek called for greater interaction between the two sides, given the “great potential for cooperation inherent in our ties”. “I believe there is huge potential for enhancing cooperation between our nations, considering that we have many areas of mutual interests,” Awang Adek said on the sidelines of a farewell dinner hosted on Saturday by Malaysian permanent representative to the United Nations, Ramlan Ibrahim, at the permanent mission in New York. Awang Adek said he was leaving Washington with “mixed feelings”. “I am happy I have completed two years and did whatever we could in these two years to improve our relations. However, it also makes me sad to leave behind so many friends and well-wishers ... in short, I am happy and yet sad at the same time,” he said. But he said that bilateral relations with the United States had “considerably improved” during his two-year posting. He pointed out that during his stint, US President Barack Obama had twice visited Malaysia, which was unprecedented in the annals of bilateral relations. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited the United States three times in the past two years, including in February 2016 in Sunnylands, California. “My greatest satisfaction was when I saw that Malaysia’s human rights record was reverted back to Tier 2 classification from a much more negative rating of Tier 3. “When I arrived in 2014, Malaysia’s rating had been downgraded to Tier 3, which is the lowest in the scale. I alerted our government to uplift the ranking to Tier 2. We worked hard ... our Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi worked hard and visited the United States ... our rating was upgraded and reverted to Tier 2. "The Deputy Prime Minister is coming again to Washington in early April. Our relations are good, and we are in a position to say that the fundamentals (of our ties) are strong,” Awang Adek said. The envoy also hoped that the visa-waiver programme, which would enable Malaysians to travel to the United States without having to first physically obtain a visa from the US embassy in Malaysia, would be finalised soon, though a few things still needed to be sorted out. “We are working on the visa-waiver programme. We have complied with much of the requirements laid down by the United States. We have brought down the former visa-rejection rate from 4.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent now, but we have to strive to bring it further down to three per cent or below in order to be fully eligible for the visa-waiver programme. "The less the number of visa rejections for Malaysians the greater are our chances of complying with US requirements for the visa-waiver programme,” Awang Adek maintained. Reflecting on the situation in the South China Sea and Malaysia’s possible cooperation with the United States in defence matters, Awang Adek said Malaysia worked within the ASEAN group to collectively discuss with the United States on the South China Sea situation. “This issue was also raised by ASEAN at last month’s ASEAN-US meeting in Sunnylands. Malaysia would like to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner with China through talks. "In this context, the Code of Conduct, as mooted in ASEAN, assumes great significance. It is still being pursued. We also have the Declaration of Conduct (DoC) by the parties in the South China Sea,” Awang Adek said. The ambassador also pointed out that trade and business between the two countries continued to flourish. Two-way trade is presently around US$35 billion, with the trade balance in Malaysia’s favour. The United States is Malaysia’s fourth biggest trading partner. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, signed by both Malaysia and the United States in Atlanta a few months back, is expected to bolster both trade and investments. “The agreement will also greatly increase investments not only from the United States but also from other countries that would want to shift to Malaysia to benefit from the tariff trade with the United States. "Malaysia's top product categories exported to the United States comprise electrical machinery, machinery, optic and medical instruments, rubber, and fats and oils, etc.,” he added. However, the fate of the TPPA is yet to be decided in the United States which is currently in the thick of election campaigning. It still needs to be ratified by the US Congress. (photoBERNAMA) -- BERNAMA