Growing nations like Malaysia need different trade protections and while Kuala Lumpur is not against trade pacts such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, the TPP must be renegotiated, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday, as quoted by Japan Times. Japan is bullish about the realization of the TPP agreement and has also pledged not sidestep the role of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership’s (RCEP) in ASEAN. Mahathir also said his country will remain friendly with China, which invested billions of dollars during the previous Najib Razak government, but will not be “indebted to China”. “We have to deal with China whether we like it or not. We should deal with it as a group,” Mahathir told an international seminar in Tokyo.