King grants audience to Japan's former PM Shinzo Abe

KUALA LUMPUR: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah granted an audience to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is here for a three-day official visit as the special envoy of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, at Istana Negara today.

Comptroller of the Royal Household for Istana Negara Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said during the meeting which started at 3.30 pm, Al-Sultan Abdullah also conferred the Honorary Doctorate in Political Economics to Abe, in conjunction with the International Islamic University Malaysia's (IIUM) 36th Convocation Ceremony tomorrow.

"His Majesty congratulates His Excellency Shinzo Abe on the conferment of the Honorary Doctorate in Political Economics from IIUM.

"His Majesty also congratulates His Excellency Shinzo Abe and the Japanese government on the 40th anniversary of Malaysia's Look East Policy (LEP) and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Japan," he said in a statement.

Also present at the conferment ceremony were Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, Foreign Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob, IIUM president Tan Sri Dr Mohd Daud Bakar, IIUM's 36th Convocation Organising Committee chairman Prof Dr Ahmad Faris Ismail as well as officials from the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Ahmad Fadil said this was Al-Sultan Abdullah's second meeting with Abe, after the first at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo when His Majesty attended the enthronement ceremony of Japan's 126th Emperor, Emperor Naruhito, on Oct 23, 2019.

Ahmad Fadil also said that Abe's special visit to this country reflected the close relationship and cooperation in various fields between Malaysia and Japan.

"The implementation of LEP over four decades has yielded huge benefits, especially in the aspects of human capital development, trade and investment between the two countries," he said.

In 2021, Japan was Malaysia's fourth-largest trading partner with a bilateral trade value of RM149 billion (USD36 billion).

As of September 2021, Japan was the largest investor based on the number of projects implemented in the manufacturing sector with a total value of RM91.7 billion (USD28.2 billion).

-- BERNAMA