By Joe Cash
BEIJING (Reuters) – Malaysia’s king Sultan Ibrahim will visit China from Thursday, the first by a Malaysian monarch in a decade, where he will meet President Xi Jinping and likely seek support for projects boosting connectivity to neighbouring Singapore.
The ceremonial ruler from the southern state of Johor, will be accompanied by Malaysia’s transport and housing ministers, a statement from the country’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
“His Majesty’s visit provides an excellent opportunity for both sides to reaffirm a shared commitment in ensuring that Malaysia-China relations continue to remain forward-looking, dynamic and prosperous,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said.
Sultan Ibrahim was installed as the country’s 17th king in January, under a unique system of monarchy where the heads of Malaysia’s nine royal families take turns to sit on the throne every five years, and are supposed to stay above politics.
But the 65-year-old has indicated he intends to weigh in on the country’s political issues and proposed in a media interview before his ascension that Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas and the country’s anti-corruption agency report directly to the king.
The last time a Malaysian king visited China was in 2014.
Ibrahim will also meet China’s second-ranking official, Premier Li Qiang, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said.
Li visited Kuala Lumpur in June and backed Malaysian plans to develop its connectivity through a $10-billion rail link to other China-backed railways projects in Laos and Thailand.
Li said that the initiative would realise plans for a proposed Pan-Asia Railway running from Kunming in China to Singapore, presumably through Johor, which is where the outspoken Sultan wants to develop a rail link, too.
Ibrahim has spoken of plans to revive a stalled high-speed rail project between Malaysia and Singapore, with a border crossing in Forest City, a $100-billion joint venture between China’s Country Garden and a private Malaysian company backed by the Sultan.
Data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute think tank shows the embattled Chinese developer had invested just $110 million out of the total $26 billion Chinese firms have directed to Malaysia since 2010, the bulk of which was in its metals, energy and transport sectors.
The two countries’ commercial ties came under the spotlight earlier this month when Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said China had protest notes to stop Malaysia’s oil exploration activities in the South China Sea, but stressed the two sides continued to communicate over the issue.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory based on historic maps, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Malaysia the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam. An international arbitration tribunal in 2016 said China’s claim had no basis under international law, a ruling Beijing does not recognise.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Additional reporting by Liz Lee and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
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