Trade ministers from India and Malaysia are likely to meet this week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, amid a palm oil spat between the two countries, a Malaysian government spokesman said on Friday.
Hindu-majority India has repeatedly objected to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaking out against its policies, which critics have said discriminate against Muslims.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation, is the second-biggest producer and exporter of palm oil, and restrictions that India last week imposed on the refined variety of palm oil have been seen as retaliation for Mahathir’s criticism of New Delhi’s actions.
Photo: Reuters
Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday denied that the government was trying to hit out specifically at Malaysia.
Nevertheless, on Friday, the row between the countries pushed benchmark Malaysian palm futures to its biggest weekly decline in more than 11 years.
No agenda has been set for the proposed meeting on Friday between Goyal and Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Darell Leiking, Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry spokesman said, adding that the request for a meeting had come from India.
An Indian government source confirmed that a meeting between the two is likely, while an Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Media reports on Thursday said that Malaysia did not want to escalate the palm spat with India by talking of any retaliation for now, after Mahathir’s media adviser called for tighter regulations on Indian expatriates and products. Malaysia instead wants to rely on diplomacy.
A separate Indian government source said that it was also important to New Delhi to talk things out with Malaysia.
“We too have a lot to lose in Malaysia, there are 2 million Indian-origin people there,” the source said.
A total of 117,733 Indian nationals were registered as foreign labor in Malaysia as of June last year, accounting for nearly 6 percent of the total foreign workforce in the country, while ethnic Malaysian-Indians are the third-largest community in the Southeast Asian country.
Another reason for the frosty ties between the countries is the continued presence of controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik in Malaysia, one of the sources said.
Naik, who faces charges of money laundering and hate speech in India, has lived in Malaysia for more than three years and has permanent residency in the country. He denies the Indian accusations.
The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
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