SAN FRANCISCO – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be delighted with the outcome of the Apec meetings which ended today but he said, “I would settle for quite happy”.
“I regret that we (the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders) were unable to reach a consensus on Gaza,” he said at the conclusion of the 30th Apec Leaders’ Meeting here.
“But I am grateful for the opportunity to bring the Palestine issue out into the open and in not a combative way.
“I wish (the United States), which has been at the forefront of humanitarian issues, had been more consistent when it came to Gaza.
“Like I said in front of US President (Joe) Biden earlier this afternoon, each day delayed means hundreds, maybe thousands of Palestinian lives, including children and women,” he said.
The prime minister spoke to Malaysian journalists after a dinner with the Malaysian diaspora here, which was the last official event in his packed schedule that started on Monday.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir; Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz; and Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil along with Malaysian envoy to the US, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, accompanied Anwar at the press conference.
Throughout the Apec meetings, Anwar had been a thorn in the flesh for host the US, which had ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza.
With the staunch support of his counterparts from Indonesia and Brunei, Zambry insisted that if Apec would not support Gaza, it should not be making any geopolitical statement at all that supports, say, Ukraine.
“Any geopolitical statement to be issued must be fair and not hypocritical,” Zambry said.
Meanwhile, Anwar praised Brunei and Indonesia for backing up Malaysia. The three countries issued a joint statement on Palestine calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
On the economic front, Anwar appeared more than quite happy. His delegation secured more than RM63 billion of new proposed investments by Microsoft, TikTok, Inovix, Google and TPG.
This amount does not include the deal signed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission under Fahmi’s ministry with BlackBerry. Among others, BlackBerry will set up a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence in Malaysia.
Tengku Zafrul said he has gotten cabinet approval to create a Malaysian Investment Facilitation Centre to cut red tape and hasten approval of new investments. – November 18, 2023