Malaysia's DPM Ahmad Zahid Receives Courtesy Call From New Zealand's AG

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), March 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Wednesday received a courtesy call from New Zealand's attorney general Christopher Finlayson at his office in Bangunan Perdana Putra, here. The meeting with Finlayson, who is also the minister reponsible for New Zealand's security intelligence agencies, lasted about one hour. Ahmad Zahid said since the establishment of diplomatic relations on Sept 25, 1957, Malaysia and New Zealand had enjoyed close cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, education, defence, as well as people-to-people ties. "Malaysia is confident that relations between both countries could be further enhanced in key areas including trade and investment, education, defence, as well as food and agriculture," he said in a statement issued in conjunction with the meeting. Recognising that people-to-people contacts played a catalytic role to further deepen bilateral ties and cooperation, Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia looked forward to materialising more exchange of visits at all levels. He said Malaysia and New Zealand would celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year, with both sides having proposed several programmes to commemorate the event including logo competition, visits, forum and many others. -- BERNAMA