KUALA LUMPUR – The Defence Ministry has denied that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation between Malaysia and the United States (US) is linked to the Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART) signed on Oct 26 this year.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the MoU was non-legally binding and had been negotiated since 2020, five years ago.
He said the defence cooperation instrument signed by the ministry and the US Department of Defense on Oct 30 this year on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM-Plus, was an MoU and not a treaty, as had been claimed.
“The contents of this Defence Cooperation MoU focus on bilateral activities between Malaysia and the US, including capability and capacity development, military training and exercises, science, technology and the defence industry, as well as other areas mutually agreed upon through the Malaysia-US Strategic Talk (MUSST), which has been implemented since 2008.
“The signing of Defence Cooperation MoUs with partner countries is a defence diplomacy instrument as outlined under Pillar Three of the Defence White Paper (DWP), which was launched in 2019 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was serving as the seventh Prime Minister,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Mohamed Khaled added that besides the US, Malaysia has also signed Defence Cooperation MoUs with other countries, including China (2016), Japan (2018), Lao PDR (2019), Indonesia (2022), Vietnam (2023), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Dec 11.
Last Thursday, Dr Mahathir claimed that the government had not fully disclosed the contents of the ART concluded with the US, including elements related to the military.