KUALA LUMPUR: In the world of diplomacy, where bridges are built, alliances are strengthened, and cultures are intertwined, the role of a diplomat holds immense significance to the outgoing United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia Brian D. McFeeters.
McFeeters arrived in the vibrant Southeast Asian nation during turbulent times, when the world was gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic and tensions escalated from the deteriorating US-China relations.
Despite the challenges, he described his tour of duty in the vibrant Southeast Asian nation since Feb 26, 2021 as "valuable" with many fine achievements for both sides.
McFeeters, who is fluent in Malay, shared that the US-Malaysia economic sphere witnessed the biggest achievements during his stint here.
"The thing that really stands out is on the economic side. Over the last 18 months (from 2022 till to date), US companies have made investment pledges in Malaysia totalling RM100 billion – a very significant figure, namely in pharmaceutical and medical devices, data centres, electronics and semiconductor sectors.
"US investments are really coming strong into Malaysia, and this is good for the US. We found out during Covid-19 that Malaysia is a vital part of the world's supply chain. Hence many US factories depend directly on something made in Malaysia.
"We have a mutually beneficial economic relationship that has been developed to this day," he said in an interview with Bernama News Chanel's TV programme "The Nation" recently.
Elaborating more on his term here, the ambassador dubbed the moment Malaysia received a million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, Pfizer, from the US as his "high point" of being able to accommodate the success story in the US-Malaysia relations.
"But I think what's more interesting here is the way that Malaysia was able to persuade around 90 per cent of its population to be vaccinated. We never quite reached that level in the US as scepticism kicked in and it became politicised (too).
"What I saw in Malaysia was a government that was able to face an unprecedented challenge (Covid-19), and get organised with some international assistance mostly done by the government.
"Here we saw the strengths of the Malaysian government where it even managed to get foreign workers vaccinated and this really made a difference," said McFeeters.
A million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 that were donated by the US government arrived in Malaysia on July 5, 2021, as part of the promises from US President Joe Biden's administration to share 80 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine with various countries including parts of Asia, Bernama reported.
Meanwhile, on the tensions in the South China Sea (SCS) region, the ambassador pointed out that he weighed in Washington's direction on the geopolitical interests concerning Malaysia which is part of the SCS region.
He reiterated that the US was not asking any country to choose between the US and China.
"There's no denying Malaysia's strong and beneficial trade relationship with China that helped the country to advance economically, and there is no request to change that.
"What the US is telling the world is each country needs to make its own decisions about how it defends its sovereignty and maritime domain.
"What we're doing on our side is we're making it clear that we want the status quo to remain as it is… for the SCS to be open for all parties' commerce purposes. It (SCS) has been an open waterway for centuries and it should remain that way.
"The preservation of the status quo is needed, which also means peace. There are threats, but it is largely peaceful in the SCS and across the Taiwan Strait. We want that to remain," he said.
Though McFeeters may have retired from the diplomatic service upon his return to the US, he had dropped hints that he will come back to Southeast Asia, a region where he had spent half of his 30-year Foreign Service career.– BERNAMA