KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Malaysia and India have reaffirmed mutual support for their role in BRICS, underscoring the cooperation as a strategic milestone towards enhancing a more balanced and representative international order.
In a joint statement released following the official visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both nations said that Malaysia has welcomed India’s 2026 BRICS Chairmanship.
On its part, New Delhi reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Putrajaya's role as a BRICS Partner Country and Malaysia’s aspiration to become a member.
“Both leaders recognised this cooperation as a strategic milestone towards enhancing a more balanced and representative international order.”
“They also shared the view that such engagements provide vital platforms for economies to contribute constructively to equitable global governance and sustainable development,” they said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Modi held a bilateral meeting in Putrajaya to deepen ties and advance the wide-ranging cooperation between Malaysia and India.
The two leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation in multilateral fora, including the United Nations (UN), and to support reforms of international institutions.
They pledged to work together to enhance multilateralism, reflecting contemporary realities, in order to make international organisations, including the UN Security Council, more representative.
Anwar and Modi also discussed mutual support for international candidacies.
They reiterated their commitment to respecting freedom of navigation and overflight, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, and urged all parties to resolve disputes through peaceful means in accordance with the universally recognised principles of international law.
The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to promoting a free, open, rules-based, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and welcomed enhanced cooperation to implement initiatives under the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).
Anwar welcomed India’s full and consistent support for ASEAN Unity and ASEAN Centrality.
Similarly, Modi appreciated Malaysia’s successful chairmanship of ASEAN in 2025 and thanked Malaysia and other ASEAN member states for their support in jointly strengthening the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Malaysia and India elevated their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in August 2024.
