Malaysia wants relations to reach ‘higher level’ with Saudi Arabia, PM says 

Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces his cabinet, Putrajaya, Malaysia, Dec. 2, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 February 2023
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Malaysia wants relations to reach ‘higher level’ with Saudi Arabia, PM says 

  • Malaysia, Saudi Arabia agree to finalize talks on establishing coordination council 
  • FM wants to explore new opportunities through Saudi’s Vision 2030 

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is committed to improving relations and exploring new areas of cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday, as the two countries agree to finalize discussions on establishing a bilateral coordination council. 

Talks to form the Saudi Arabia-Malaysia Coordination Council have been ongoing since September 2020, and the matter was again discussed in a meeting between Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abd Kadir and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh earlier this week. 

The Malaysian premier, in a series of tweets posted on Thursday, congratulated Saudi leaders for the Kingdom’s Founding Day and said his government is committed to boosting ties. 

“Malaysia is committed to elevating the brotherly relations with the Kingdom to a higher level, especially in trade, investment, education, and culture as well as exploring new potential areas of cooperation,” Anwar said. 

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia established diplomatic relations in 1961. The Kingdom has long funded mosques and schools across the Southeast Asian nation, while also providing scholarships for Malaysians to study in the Gulf country. The Southeast Asian country was also one of the countries King Salman visited in his 2017 Asian tour. 

The Malaysian foreign minister arrived in Riyadh on Sunday for a state visit and met top officials and leaders of international organizations based in the Kingdom, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 

The new areas of bilateral cooperation can be explored through the SMCC, Kadir wrote on Twitter. 

The council will serve as the main platform for future cooperation across sectors and ministries between the two countries, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, adding that both countries agreed to increase bilateral trade. 

“These include finding space and opportunities through Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which is indeed a very good development agenda to be explored together,” Zambry said, as quoted in a statement. 

Shahriman Lockman, director of special projects at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur, said the SMCC will be key for Malaysia. 

“The SMCC is essential to Malaysia primarily because it wants to take part in the epochal transformation that’s taking place in Saudi Arabia,” Lockman told Arab News. 

“Malaysia sees how Saudi Arabia is reorienting its economy and society for an era in which oil and gas are likely to play a less significant role than they do today,” he said. 

“People in the Malaysian foreign policy establishment realize that we should be plugged into that transformation sooner rather than later.” 


A small plane crashes into the terrace of a house in Germany. 2 people are dead

Updated 2 sec ago
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A small plane crashes into the terrace of a house in Germany. 2 people are dead

The plane hit the terrace of the building and a fire broke out

BERLIN: A small plane crashed into the terrace of a residential building in western Germany on Saturday and two people were killed, police said.

The crash happened in Korschenbroich, near the city of Mönchengladbach and not far from the Dutch border.

The plane hit the terrace of the building and a fire broke out. Police said two people died and one of them was probably the plane’s pilot, German news agency dpa reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the other person had been on the plane or on the ground.

Officials had no immediate information on the cause of the crash.

Georgia’s foreign-agents act ‘a serious setback’: EU officials

Updated 21 min 38 sec ago
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Georgia’s foreign-agents act ‘a serious setback’: EU officials

  • Georgia’s law is inspired by US legislation which makes it mandatory for any person or organization representing a foreign country, group or party to declare its activities to authorities

BRUSSELS: A new law in Georgia that from Saturday requires NGOs and media outlets to register as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad is a “serious setback,” for the country, two top EU officials said.

Alongside other laws on broadcasting and grants, “these repressive measures threaten the very survival of Georgia’s democratic foundations and the future of its citizens in a free and open society,” EU diplomatic chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said in a joint statement.

They stressed that the law, which they dubbed a tool “by the Georgian authorities to suppress dissent (and) restrict freedoms,” jeopardized the country’s ambitions of one day joining the European Union.

“Georgia’s Foreign Agents Registration Act marks a serious setback for the country’s democracy,” they said.

Georgia’s law is inspired by US legislation which makes it mandatory for any person or organization representing a foreign country, group or party to declare its activities to authorities.

But NGOs believe it will be used by Georgia’s illiberal and Euroskeptic government to further repression of civil society and the opposition.

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by daily demonstrations since late last year, with protesters decrying what they see as an increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russia government.

Tensions escalated in November when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would postpone EU membership talks until 2028.

“The EU is ready to consider the return of Georgia to the EU accession path if the authorities take credible steps to reverse democratic backsliding,” Kallas and Kos said in their statement.


France’s prison population reaches all-time high

Updated 31 May 2025
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France’s prison population reaches all-time high

  • Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has called the overcrowding crisis “unacceptable,” has suggested building new facilities to accommodate the growing prison population

PARIS: France’s prison population hit a record high on May 1, with 83,681 inmates held in facilities that have a capacity of just 62,570, justice ministry data showed on Saturday.
Over the past year, France’s prison population grew by 6,000 inmates, taking the occupancy rate to 133.7 percent.
The record overcrowding has even seen 23 out of France’s 186 detention facilities operating at more than twice their capacity.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has called the overcrowding crisis “unacceptable,” has suggested building new facilities to accommodate the growing prison population.
The hard-line minister announced in mid-May a plan to build a high-security prison in French Guiana — an overseas territory situated north of Brazil — for the most “dangerous” criminals, including drug kingpins.
Prison overcrowding is “bad for absolutely everyone,” said Darmanin in late April, citing the “appalling conditions” for prisoners and “the insecurity and violence” faced by prison officers.
A series of coordinated attacks on French prisons in April saw assailants torching cars, spraying the entrance of one prison with automatic gunfire, and leaving mysterious inscriptions.
The assaults embarrassed the right-leaning government, whose tough-talking ministers — Darmanin and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau — have vowed to step up the fight against narcotics.
And in late April, lawmakers approved a major new bill to combat drug-related crime, with some of France’s most dangerous drug traffickers facing detention in high-security prison units in the coming months.
France ranks among the worst countries in Europe for prison overcrowding, placing third behind Cyprus and Romania, according to a Council of Europe study published in June 2024.


Evacuation order for 11 villages on Ukraine border with Russia

Updated 31 May 2025
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Evacuation order for 11 villages on Ukraine border with Russia

  • Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday said its forces had taken another Sumy village, Vodolagy, known as Vodolahy in Ukrainian

KYIV: Authorities in Ukraine’s Sumy region bordering Russia on Saturday ordered the mandatory evacuation of 11 villages because of bombardments, as Kyiv feared a Russian offensive there.
“This decision takes into account the constant threat to civilian lives because of the bombardments of border communities,” Sumy’s administration said.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday said its forces had taken another Sumy village, Vodolagy, known as Vodolahy in Ukrainian.
Russia in recent weeks has claimed to have taken several villages in the northeastern region, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Moscow was massing more than 50,000 soldiers nearby in a sign of a possible offensive.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s border guard service, Andriy Demchenko, on Thursday said that Russia was poised to “attempt an attack” on Sumy.
He said the Russian troop build-up began when Moscow’s forces fought Ukrainian soldiers who last year had entered the Russian side of the border, in the Kursk region.
Russia has recently retaken control of virtually all of Kursk.
Currently, Russia — which launched its all-out invasion in February 2022 — controls around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. The ongoing conflict has killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
Washington has been leading diplomatic efforts to try to bring about a ceasefire, but Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of not wanting peace.
The Kremlin has proposed further negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, after a May 16 round of talks that yielded little beyond a large prisoner-of-war exchange.
Kyiv has not yet said whether it will attend the Istanbul meeting, and is demanding that Moscow drop its opposition to an immediate truce.


Afghanistan welcomes upgraded diplomatic ties with Pakistan

Updated 31 May 2025
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Afghanistan welcomes upgraded diplomatic ties with Pakistan

  • The move signals easing tensions between the neighboring countries have cooled in recent months
  • Tensions fueled by security concerns and a campaign by Islamabad to expel tens of thousands of Afghans

KABUL: Afghanistan has welcomed the decision to upgrade diplomatic relations with Pakistan, where the Taliban government’s foreign minister is due to travel in the coming days, his office said on Saturday.

The move signals easing tensions between the neighboring countries, as relations between the Taliban authorities and Pakistan – already rocky – have cooled in recent months, fueled by security concerns and a campaign by Islamabad to expel tens of thousands of Afghans.

Pakistan’s top diplomat on Friday said the charge d’affaires stationed in Kabul would be elevated to the rank of ambassador, with Kabul later announcing its representative in Islamabad would also be upgraded.

“This elevation in diplomatic representation between Afghanistan & Pakistan paves the way for enhanced bilateral cooperation in multiple domains,” the Aghan foreign ministry said on X.

Kabul’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is due to visit Pakistan “in the coming days,” ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad Takal said.

Muttaqi met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in May in Beijing as part of a trilateral meeting with their Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Wang afterwards announced Kabul and Islamabad’s intention to exchange ambassadors and expressed Beijing’s willingness “to continue to assist with improving Afghanistan-Pakistan ties.”

Dar hailed the “positive trajectory” of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations on Friday, saying the upgrading of their representatives would “promote further exchanges between two fraternal countries.”

Only a handful of countries – including China – have agreed to host Taliban government ambassadors since their return to power in 2021, with no country yet formally recognizing the administration.

Russia last month said it would also accredit a Taliban government ambassador, days after removing the group’s “terrorist” designation.