SAN FRANCISCO: Malaysia has made its stand loud and clear on the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the untold humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said, adding he had the ears of United States President Joe Biden when the issue was raised at the Apec Summit 2023 here.
The prime minister said there was stony silence all round when he talked about the unfairness suffered by the Palestinians and how the world could not continue turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"We had the opportunity to articulate our position and discuss the issue...not in a combative mode but in an engaging way.
"We expressed our views and I spoke about the need for fairness and consistency in our actions in dealing with such crisis.
"I took the opportunity to relate to President Biden about how he had made a very strong stand when I was unjustly abused and thrown into prison previously. I told him that I am appealing to him to adopt the same principle to stop the indiscriminate killing of women, children and other innocent people in Gaza....I could see there was stone silence in the room when I spoke about this."
He said at the end of the day, Apec leaders had come up with the Golden Gate Declaration while Malaysia, along with Indonesia and Brunei had been united to issue a joint statement calling for an immediate durable and sustained truce leading to a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza strip.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei decided to issue the statement following the Chair's decision to issue a separate statement on the aggression in Ukraine.
Anwar said this in his wrap up press conference following the conclusion of the 2023 Apec Summit today.
On the economic success of his trip, Anwar said he was happy to note that the trade and investment mission to the US had successfully generated at least RM8.33 billion cumulatively.
In a press conference earlier today, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that companies which would be investing included Abott Laboratories, Mondelez International, Amstead Rail, Hematogenix, PerkinElmer, Ford Motor Company, Boeing, Amazon Web Services, enovix and Lam Research.
Anwar had also met with tech giants like Google, Enovix Cooperation, Microsoft, Tik Tok and TPG, leading to commitments of up to RM54.72 billion for them to further expand in Malaysia.
The 2023 Apec Summit, which ended today, was chaired by President Biden - who had a much anticipated meeting with China President Xi Jinping amid rising tensions among the two superpowers.
Anwar, who is Finance Minister, said he was happy the two leaders had met and opened the doors of engagement.
"This is very important for the economic stability of this region," he said.
The US and Malaysia are among the 12 founding members of APEC. The others are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Papua New Guinea followed suit in 1993. Chile acceded in 1994 and in 1998, Peru, Russia and Vietnam also joined the cooperation, taking the full membership to 21.