Malaysia is working to accept India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system and RuPay payment service and Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi are looking at trade settlement in domestic currency to boost commerce and trade, the Hindustan Times reported citing Malaysian foreign minister Zambry Abdul Kadir.
“Our Bank Negara Malaysia is working towards accepting UPI. This is an important step. I checked with Bank Negara and they are looking forward to that, they don’t see any problems in doing that,” Kadir said. Negara Malaysia is Malaysia’s central bank.
The report by the newspaper said that both nations are also exploring ways to ramp up defence and security cooperation. Kadir said both nations are exploring collaboration between defence industries, training of army personnel as well as joint exercises.
Kadir and Union foreign minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday chaired a bilateral Joint Commission Meeting (JCM). This is the first JCM in 12 years.
During the meeting, Malaysian and Indian foreign ministers discussed bolstering cooperation in semiconductors, electronic and electric products, fintech and green technology sectors as well as startups.
Kadir also thanked India for supplying 170,000 tonnes of non-basmati white rice recently when Malaysia was facing a shortage. “We remember what India has done to help us alleviate the critical issue we were facing,” Kadir said.
Kadir also said Malaysia is open to India’s RuPay payment service and both sets of officials need to discuss “technical aspects and the software”. “Trade settlement in domestic currencies is another way forward for trade between the two countries. Malaysia and Indonesia have similar arrangements with us. Now, we have proposed it to India. The Indian side is also quite receptive to this,” the Malaysian foreign minister further added.
He pointed out that it is not a de-dollarisation move but a step to strengthen the local currencies and check how both New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur can benefit by using local currencies.
Kadir, as per the report by the newspaper, gave a reserved response when asked about fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik. Zakir Naik has been residing in Malaysia since 2016 and is wanted in India for alleged involvement in money laundering and inciting extremism through hate speeches.
“We emphasised more in terms of the system, rather than looking into [an individual] because when we have this JCM, such meetings are more about more comprehensive matters,” Kadir was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
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