Promoting Malaysia-Japan partnership: the political and security dimensions

Abstract

The question must surely arise. Beyond the cultivation of bilateral goodwill, how meaningful is it to speak of Japanese-Malaysian cooperation in international affairs? Or put it another way, what can Malaysia possibly offer Japan, a country with an economy 44 times that of Malaysia measured by GNP nominal, and already perceived by many to be a big power in the international arena? The answer of course is not much. But upon deeper analysis, one finds this is true mainly in the economic arena. Filled with capital and sophisticated technology, Japan is constantly bombarded by requests from other countries to unload some of these on them. It thus needs little or no help from Malaysia (which indeed is one of the countries making such a request) to conduct its international economic affairs.