KUALA LUMPUR: The Chinese government will "honour and respect" the claims of others in the South China Sea dispute, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
This is amid rising tensions over the major power's purported 2023 China Standard Map, which laid claim to sovereignty of about 90 per cent of the South China Sea, including areas off the Sabah and Sarawak coast.
Anwar, in a recent interview with American-based news magazine Time, said he had publicly raised the matter to the Chinese Premier at the Asean East Asia dialogue.
"I was one of the few Asean leaders who said it publicly in front of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the Asean East Asia dialogue.
"But to me, what is reassuring is the categorical statement by Li that they will honour and respect the claims of others."
He said the Malaysian navy had raised objections if it identified anything it considered as incursions, although China also claimed that it was also their territory.
"But thus far, when things are raised, or a polite note of concern is expressed, they do not necessarily withdraw but at least give some deference or consideration.
"Which means they do not, for example, aggressively enter our waters.
"When we identify cases of them entering our waters and give a note of protest, then they have steered away on a number of occasions."
During the Asean Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, recently, Anwar voiced the need to resolve the standard map issue peacefully and rationally based on the law.
The map was released on Aug 28 by China's Natural Resources Ministry in conjunction with the country's National Mapping Awareness Week and Survey and Mapping Publicity Day.
On Aug 31, Malaysia's Foreign Ministry said it would send a formal protest note to China regarding the delineations of the South China Sea according to the map it released.
In the interview, Anwar also described China as an "important neighbour" and an "important trading nation", adding that engagement with the country had responded favourably to engagements despite these issues.
To a question on how the Malaysian government would respond to the United States asking to pick a side, Anwar said: "We do have issues (with China) like the South China Sea, but the engagement has been working, in the sense that we have stated our position and I'm reassured that China said they would not do anything without meaningful exchanges and dialogues.
"At the same time, the US is a longtime ally and friend, and we continue to engage with them.
"But we cannot be intimidated in any way."
An example of this, he said, was the implementation of the 5G network in Malaysia, where the government had also chosen Chinese tech giant Huawei to participate in the rollout of the infrastructure, apart from Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson.
"My position was to continue it because it is an important technology. But why shouldn't we utilise the best of both worlds? So we chose (Chinese tech giant Huawei to also participate.
"Of course, this displeased some people. But I can't help it. My commitment and loyalty are to the people of Malaysia," he added.