Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will be in Türkiye between Tuesday and Thursday, as an official guest of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Turkish Presidency’s Directorate of Communications announced on Tuesday that the visiting premier will attend the first meeting of the Türkiye-Malaysia High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council on Wednesday.
Burhanettin Duran, head of the communications directorate, said that the visit would include the potential signing of “various documents that will strengthen the basis of relations between Türkiye and Malaysia.” He also said in a statement that the talks would also include discussions on regional and international issues.
The Malaysian media reported that Anwar would be conferred the Order of the Republic, the highest award for foreign leaders, during his three-day visit.
Among other events Anwar is scheduled to attend is a roundtable meeting with executives of Turkish companies for economic and trade cooperation and a lecture at a university about Turkish-Malaysian relations.
Anwar’s visit comes about one year after Erdoğan visited Malaysia during a tour of Asia. During that visit, Erdoğan announced plans to double Türkiye's trade volume with Malaysia and expand cooperation with its biggest Southeast Asian partner.
"We have decided to increase the trade volume, which we previously set at $5 billion (TL 180.27 billion), to $10 billion," Erdoğan said during a news conference held after his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last February.
"We aim for a sustainable and balanced trade volume," he added.
Malaysia is a member of D-8, formed in 1997 in Istanbul. The international body also includes Türkiye, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria. It is also the 2025 chair of ASEAN, whose summits have been participated in by Türkiye since 2013. The two countries signed a free trade agreement in 2014, the first between an ASEAN member country and Türkiye.
Malaysia maintains close links with Türkiye, particularly in the defense industry and aerospace, and is interested in maritime defense products produced by Turkish companies. One of Türkiye's biggest defense companies, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), has set up an office in Malaysia that provides employment for more than 100 Malaysian engineers. In 2024, another leading Turkish defense company, STM, signed a deal to supply three corvette warships to Malaysia.
Erdoğan's visit saw the signing of 11 agreements between Türkiye and Malaysia.
