Malaysia ‘values China’: Mahathir signs up to Xi’s second belt and road summit

Malaysian prime minister seeks to reassure Beijing of his commitment to President Xi Jinping’s landmark project, analysts say

Move follows conflicting signals over future of the China-backed East Coast Rail Link project

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang welcomes Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to Beijing on his visit last year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:45pm, 15 Feb 2019Updated: 9:59pm, 15 Feb 2019

Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad has become the first world leader to confirm his attendance at China’s second Belt and Road Initiative summit this April, in a move analysts say is aimed at reassuring Beijing of his commitment to the project.

They say the Malaysian prime minister’s second visit to the country since coming to power in May 2018 will do much to assuage any doubts about the bilateral relationship that have crept in since his newly minted administration cancelled a series of Beijing-backed multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects agreed under his predecessor Najib Razak.

At a press conference on Friday to announce his attendance at the summit, Mahathir stressed that Malaysia “valued” its relationship with China.

“I’ve already said I support the [belt and road],” Mahathir said. “When [China and Malaysia] established relations [China] was a very poor country. Very backward. But now it has made tremendous progress and of course when China makes tremendous progress this influences the relationship between Malaysia and China.

“We find that China is now the biggest trading partner for Malaysia. It is also a big investor in Malaysia. Our policy is of course to retain and improve the relationship between Malaysia and China,” he said.

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