News

On 5 March, the first bilateral political consultations in the history of Lithuania and Malaysia were held at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Undersecretary of the Lithuanian MFA Evaldas Ignatavičius and Director of the Europe and Asia Department of the Malaysian MFA Dato’ Shamsuddin Abdullah headed the consultations, which took place in a very warm and constructive atmosphere. During the meeting, a variety of issues were discussed, beginning with the bilateral Lithuanian-Malaysian cooperation and ending with the interregional cooperation between Europe and Asia. Trade, investment, transport, tourism, development of informational and biological technologies, education and science were named as the most promising areas for the bilateral cooperation in the future. It was underlined at the meeting that with Lithuania’s membership in the European Union, entirely new prospects for the Lithuanian-Malaysian cooperation would open up. It was admitted that signing agreements on encouragement and protection of investment as well as avoidance of double taxation would help to encourage development of the bilateral cooperation. The Malaysian officials expressed their special interest in possibilities of developing relations with Lithuania in the field of science and studies. At the meeting, other cooperation encouragement initiatives were also discussed. The officials agreed that Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis’ visit to Malaysia should take place in the nearest future. Evaldas Ignatavičius was also invited to come to Malaysia for the second stage of the bilateral consultations. In 2002, Lithuania appointed former Ambassador to China Dainius Ginutis Voveris Ambassador to Malaysia. Ambassador Voveris presented the credentials in spring 2003. The diplomat resides in Vilnius. Present Malaysian Ambassador to Lithuania Jasmi Yusoff resides in Stockholm. In the nearest future, there are plans to appoint the head of the newly opening Malaysian Embassy in Finland the Ambassador to Lithuania.