MALAYSIA
By Tang Siew Mun
ISEAS-Jun 22
On the surface, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to Japan from 9-12 June 2018 should not have raised any eyebrows. After all, he was in Tokyo at the invitation of Nikkei Shimbun to speak at the 24th Nikkei Conference on the Future of Asia, a high-level international conference that he has strongly supported since its inauguration in 1995. Notwithstanding the fact that this was Mahathir’s first overseas visit since assuming the premiership, the four-day working visit, which included a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was full of political and strategic significance.
In the first instance, Mahathir rekindled the re-introduction of the Look East Policy (LEP), a move widely seen as signaling the Pakatan Harapan government’s interest to work closer with Japan. Whilst the Malaysia-Japan relationship is substantive and stable, it has nevertheless plateaued since the turn of the century as Malaysia sought closer ties with China. The Najib
Administration’s half-hearted attempt to inject new dynamism into the bilateral ties through the LEP 2.0 in 2013 never took off, as Kuala Lumpur continued to court and was courted by Beijing. The LEP 3.0 under Mahathir’s leadership will put Japan firmly back into Malaysia’s political and strategic radar. This is also an opportunity for Tokyo to regain some initiative under Abe’s twin policy of “proactive contribution to peace” and “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
Read more at: https://www.iseas.edu.sg/medias/commentaries/item/7816-reviewing-mahathirs-and-malaysias-foreign-policy-by-tang-siew-mun
First published in: ISEAS
