Malaysia Has To Face New Challenges Of Geopolitics - PM Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is monitoring closely the geopolitical developments taking place in the world so that decisions and measures taken are in accordance with the country’s interests, said Najib Razak. The prime minister referred to the Gulf crisis, the threat of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and the United Kingdom elections that resulted in a hung parliament as some of the geopolitical uncertainties that had attracted worldwide attention. "These are besides the threat of violent extremism that is a major challenge for us. We also realise that there is a new and more serious risk that we have to deal with, that is the geopolitical risk,” he told a press conference after chairing a meeting of the UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) Supreme Council here Friday. UMNO is Malaysia's largest political party and the founding member of the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition. Earlier this week, the world was shocked by the decision of Arab states – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Yemen and Libya – to break diplomatic relations with Qatar accusing it of destabilising the region with its support for terrorist groups. Similar move was followed by the Maldives, Comoros and Mauritania, while Jordan announced downgrading its diplomatic representation in Qatar and the cancellation of the licence of Al Jazeera channel in the Kingdom. Qatar rejected the allegations as baseless and unjustified. Najib also said that the world was experiencing positive economic growth and Malaysia also recorded an encouraging economic performance in the first quarter of this year, namely 5.6 per cent growth compared to 4.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year. The prime minister also said that preparations for Malaysia's 14th General Election were running smoothly. -- BERNAMA