India and Malaysia have agreed to establish a Strategic Affairs Working Group (SAWG) to formulate a consultative mechanism to liaise between MIDCOM, and the two sub-committees to handle all aspects of defence cooperation between the two nations, the Ministry of Defense of India said on Wednesday.
The agreement was reached during the 12th meeting of MIDCOM held in Delhi on Tuesday and co-chaired by Giridhar Aramane, the Indian Defence Secretary, and Mohd Yani bin Daud, Malaysia's Deputy Secretary General (Policy).
These gatherings have enabled India and Malaysia to strengthen their existing partnership and lead to the furthering of dialogues and collaborations.
The meeting's co-chairmen also discussed challenges facing the global community and explored new areas of collaboration, such as cyber security. They also identified various ways they could strengthen current partnerships mainly in such sectors as multilateral projects, maritime security, and defence industry cooperation, the ministry added.
The Indian Defense Secretary presented an eight-point proposal outlining ways to enhance cooperation between Malaysia and India, including government-to-government engagement, tri-service cooperation, training, UN peacekeeping, bilateral service engagement, defence industry cooperation, research and development, and regional and sub-regional engagements.
Similarly, the meeting also focused on India's developing domestic defence industry and its potential to work with the Malaysian Armed Forces, mainly in shipbuilding and maintenance.