JCM: M’sia, Iran Agree To Strengthen Cooperation In Various Sectors - Mohamad

From Muhammad Faiz Baharin

TEHRAN, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and Iran have agreed to explore and strengthen bilateral relations, particularly in trade, investment, education, health and research, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

He said the matter was agreed upon during the 8th Malaysia-Iran Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) that he co-chaired with his counterpart Seyyed Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday.

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He said the meeting also enhanced the government-to-government relationship between Kuala Lumpur and Tehran and business-to-business connections between the people of both countries.

"In terms of trade and business, we have identified (key areas) and will coordinate them through a Joint Economic Commission Meeting between the Trade Ministers of both countries, with Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) serving as the coordinating agency.

"Although Iran is under unilateral sanctions from the United States, we cannot sever our bilateral relations. We need to explore ways to enhance cooperation in research, science, technology, health and tourism, which are not subject to sanctions," he told Bernama today.

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Mohamad said this after meeting with staff members of the Malaysian Embassy in Iran before concluding his inaugural official visit from Feb 25 to 27. 

According to Mohamad, the Malaysia-Iran commitment to trade cooperation aligns with Wisma Putra's policy, which oversees bilateral and multilateral relations and aims to open as many new markets as possible through trade diplomacy, reducing reliance on traditional markets.

Elaborating on trade matters, Mohamad said Malaysia targets increasing palm oil exports to Iran.

"They have expressed their willingness to import palm oil products. I stated that we no longer encourage the export of crude palm oil; instead, Malaysia aims to export refined palm oil in various forms, as this will add value to our exports. They have no issues with this.

"In fact, they suggested that we should seize the opportunity to position Iran as a gateway to the Central Asian market, as it remains largely untapped," he said while inviting Iran to make Malaysia the country's gateway for trade into ASEAN.

On education, Mohamad said he had requested the Iranian government to send more students to pursue Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD degrees in Malaysia to solidify people-to-people relations between the countries further.

For the record, Malaysia hosted the 7th JCM from Nov 10 to 11, 2008 in Putrajaya. In 2024, Iran was Malaysia's seventh-largest trading partner in the West Asian region, with total trade valued at RM2.6 billion (USD0.57 billion), marking a 24.6 per cent increase from 2023.

Malaysia was Iran's largest trading partner among ASEAN Member States and its 19th largest globally in 2023.

Malaysia established its embassy in Tehran in 1970, while Iran opened its embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1981.

-- BERNAMA