Hardly arriving in this capital from Manama, the capital of Bahrain, Anwar Ibrahim attended a meeting to brief his Cabinet on the outcomes of the two trips.

The prime minister highlighted his meeting with Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who agreed to visit Malaysia in May, coinciding with the upcoming ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit, and the ASEAN-GCC+China Summit.

On January 1, 2025, Malaysia took over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), also consisting of Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and Myanmar.

Malaysia’s Bernama news agency informed that the increased cooperation will cover education, artificial intelligence (AI), tourism, business, investment, and finance, even Islamic banking and the halal industry.

mh/iff/nmr/msm