Malaysia, Indonesia agree to strengthen Bahasa Melayu

JAKARTA: Malaysia and Indonesia will continue to make efforts to uplift the status of Bahasa Melayu, which may become an ASEAN language one day, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The two countries have agreed to use Bahasa Melayu as a language of communication at every international conference.

"We would like to thank the Bapak Presiden (Indonesian President) for agreeing with Malaysia to enhance Bahasa Melayu, which has common roots for us," said Ismail Sabri.

He said Bahasa Melayu is widely used in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.

The prime minister said this at a joint press conference with Indonesian President Joko Widodo after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Indonesian Domestic Helpers between the two countries here today.

Touching on regional issues, Ismail Sabri said the two countries agreed that the Rohingya issue should be settled internally by the Myanmar government itself.

It is a big issue to Malaysia because there are 200,000 Myanmar Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, he added.

-- BERNAMA