KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is bullish that “very constructive” outcomes will result from the Asean Summit and related meetings that Malaysia is hosting as regional leaders began meeting on May 23, citing progress on a regional power grid and the Myanmar civil war.
He told a May 25 interview with select regional press outlets, including The Straits Times, that Kuala Lumpur has been “engaging very aggressively” with others in the 10-nation grouping, which has built “consensus on a number of issues”, including intra-Asean trade and the United States’ blanket import tariffs.
On the power grid, the Premier said the plan to connect “Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore is considered done” and it was now a matter of fast-tracking the overland route as well as an undersea cable from Sarawak, the East Malaysian state that is planning to nearly triple its renewable energy capacity to 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2035.
He noted that there are two separate cable routes, landing either in West Malaysia or Singapore, but “in my initial discussions with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, whichever is earliest… we are fine with both”.
In April, Asean secretary-general Kao Kim Hourn said that a regionwide grid would require an investment of US$764 billion (S$981 billion).
“I think it would certainly be more economic to have just one (cable), but there must be clear stipulations to provide clearly the power required by Singapore,” Datuk Seri Anwar said in the interview at his office in Putrajaya that was also attended by Bernama, Antara and Vietnam News Agency.
A Sarawak-Singapore line would have to traverse Indonesian waters, but Mr Anwar said that even with a cable going to Peninsular Malaysia, “there can be guarantees in the agreement what is due for Singapore”.
Singapore and Sarawak have entered into an agreement for 1GW to be supplied from the Malaysian state to the Republic by 2031.
Mr Anwar has been active on foreign policy since taking power in November 2022, with many observers noting a lean away from the West, as well as frequent visits to other superpowers such as China and Russia.
In April, Malaysia welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in a dozen years, and Premier Li Qiang’s attendance at the inaugural Asean-Gulf Cooperation Council-China Summit on May 26 will mark a rare occasion when Beijing’s top two leaders visit the same country in quick succession.
As a result, Malaysia’s chairmanship of Asean has piqued interest and built up expectations of tangible outcomes, especially in longstanding issues such as overlapping claims in the South China Sea among Asean member states and Beijing, as well as the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
On April 17, Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing flew in for a closed-door meeting with Mr Anwar during the latter’s visit to Bangkok, and the following day, the Malaysian Premier held online talks with the shadow National Unity Government (NUG).
Although Mr Anwar had said that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing gave an assurance of extending an April 2 ceasefire that “is important to allow humanitarian assistance to cover all of Myanmar”, reports, including from the United Nations, claim that hundreds of attacks by the military government have killed 200 people in the month since the devastating March 28 earthquake.
Nonetheless, Malaysia’s initiatives mark the first time the regime has opened up to dialogue since the February 2021 coup that has killed thousands, displaced more than 3.5 million people and decimated Myanmar’s economy.
“As UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk has confirmed, the junta’s unremitting violence inflicted on civilians” has continued unabated despite the ceasefire, a Special Advisory Council for Myanmar made up of three UN experts said in a joint statement with former Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah on May 19.
It called for Asean to convene “inclusive talks between the NUG” and other groups, including the junta, to secure an immediate end to all attacks.
But Mr Anwar said that credit must be given for “the fact (that) there generally is a ceasefire”, which has allowed “humanitarian assistance to flow without interruption”.
“There have been skirmishes, but each (side) claims it is violence from the other side. Our field hospital was allowed to be set up and utilised by other groups, and the senior general of the junta has tolerated and allowed that, which, to me, is a major departure from the old position,” he added.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan chaired two meetings with Asean counterparts on May 24 to discuss the next steps on Myanmar.
“We have already met with the respective stakeholders (in Myanmar) and we know their wish list. Now, we want to present it to the State Administrative Council and wait for feedback,” he told reporters, referring to the military government.
- Shannon Teoh is The Straits Times’ bureau chief for Malaysia, where he has reported on various beats since 1998.
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