Philippines, Malaysia hold security meeting

MANILA, Philippines — Top security officials of the Philippines and Malaysia held a high-level bilateral meeting in Makati City on Tuesday in an effort to strengthen ties and work together toward enhancing regional security.

The National Security Councils of both countries aimed to deepen security cooperation between the two neighboring nations with National Security Adviser Eduardo Año and Malaysia’s National Security Council Director General Raja Dato’ Nushirwan Bin Zainal Abidin leading the discussions that sought to reinforce the political, security and economic ties between the two ASEAN states.

“Our two leaders, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, made a commitment in 2023 to strengthen the political, security and economic relations of our two countries. Their commitments are marching orders for us to continue our security engagements and explore areas of cooperation,” Año said.

Nushirwan, in response, affirmed the same sentiment, highlighting the natural affinity between the Philippines and Malaysia.

Responding to evolving regional security realities, Año welcomed Malaysia’s proposal to establish a dialogue mechanism for national security advisors from ASEAN member-states.

Año also raised the situation of undocumented Filipinos in Sabah, stressing that “though many Filipinos have been given residency status in Sabah, many remain undocumented. It is the desire of our government to register all of these undocumented Filipinos for them to access social services offered by the Philippine government.”

Nushirwan welcomed a proposal to have a bilateral platform to address the issues, saying the Malaysian government will continue to facilitate consular visits of the Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur to Sabah and Sarawak.

The security meeting revisited the ongoing trilateral cooperative agreement between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia aimed at combating piracy, human trafficking and other transnational crimes in their maritime borders.