Malaysia-Russia
Diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Soviet Union we're established on April 3, 1967. Malaysia declared its recognition of the Russian Federation as the successor of the Soviet Union on December 31, 1991.
In March, 2002, Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad paid an official visit to Moscow, Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been to Malaysia twice in 2003: on an official visit in August and to attend the OIC Summit in October. Vladimir Putin participated in the first Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005 and, as well, had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato' Sri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The Rulers of Malaysia had visited Russia several times. Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman was to St.Petersburg in May 1997 on his unofficial visit as well as Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail - in September 2005.
In June 2007 Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi paid an official visit to Russia, during which he held negotiations with Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Fratkov, Prime Minister of Russia.
In March 2011 Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad visited Russia as a guest of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Besides meetings with the current President, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad also had a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In November 2011 on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in HonoluluMalaysian prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had a meeting with Russian President Dmirty Medvedev.
On September 8, 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed opportunities of expanding of trade and economy partnership of two countries with Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the sidelines of the APEC conference in Vladivostok, Russia.
On October 1, 2015, Maxim Shereikin, Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East Region of Russia and Datuk Syed Ali Alattas, President of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia had working meeting, during which they discussed development if investment and business cooperation, increasing volume of trade over and other issues of bilateral collaboration.
On November 20-22, 2015, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Kuala Lumpur to take part in the East Asia Summit. On November 21, 2015, he had a meeting with Datuk Seri Najib Razak. After the meeting they witnessed the signing of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation. Datuk Seri Najib Razak stressed that Malaysia is keen to develop bilateral relations, especially in aerospace and defence industries.
Both countries maintain political dialogue, regular exchange of messages at the highest level and between the heads of the foreign ministries on current bilateral issues and the most urgent international problems. Russian and Malaysian Foreign Ministries hold regular consultations, that include issues of interaction on the islamic issues (2007) and antiterrorism (2011).
On August 5, 2015, During the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's official visit to Malaysia, the Business Council hosted a meting between Sergey Lavrov and business circles of Malaysia.
Interparliamentary relations are maintained. In May 2005 the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Mikhail Nikolaev met heads of Malaysian Senate and House of Representatives. The President of the Senate of Malaysia paid an official visit to Russia in January 2007. In January 2010 Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironov paid an official visit to Malaysia. In September 2011 President of Senate of Malaysia Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang visited Moscow. In January 2013 during the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Vladivostok Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang had a meeting with Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Mdm. Valentina Matvienko. In June 2013 the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ilyas Umahanov met Deputy President of Senate Malaysia Dato Sri Doris Sophia Brodi. In February 2013 delegation of Russian State Duma, headed by Igor Rudensky, Chairman of the Committee for economic policy, innovation development and entrepreneurship, visited Malaysia. In January 15, 2015 Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Mdm. Valentina Matvienko held a meeting with President of Senate of Malaysia Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang "on the sidelines" of the 23rd session of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Ecuador. On February 12, 2015 Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ilyas Umahanov met with delegation of Malaysian business circles, headed by Deputy CEO of MATRADE Dato' Dzulkifli Mahmood.
As for inter-party contacts, the delegation of the Russian ruling political party "United Russia" took part in 55th UMNO Assembly in 2004. In April 2006 delegation of UMNO paid a return visit to Moscow, during which two sides signed a protocol on inter-party collaboration. In 2008, 2009 and 2011 UMNO delegations took part in "United Russia" Assemblies as guests.
President of Tatarstan Republic Rustam Minnikhanov visited Malaysia in January 2013. He had a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Razak. In February 2015 Rustam Minnikhanov welcomed Malaysian delegation, that comprised MATRADE, IBFIM, Bank Negara and Unirazak officials.
Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad visited Chechen Republic. He was welcomed by Chairman of Chechen Government Abubakar Edelgeriev, Chairman of the Parliament Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov. It was acknowledged that Malaysia and Chechen Republic have common values in religion and in many other areas. It was stressed, that priority areas of cooperation will be education and investments. Sides agreed to look into the opportunity to cooperate in electronics, biotechnology and halal technology areas.
Malaysian is an important partner of Russia among ASEAN countries. In 2014 the trade over between Russia and Malaysia reached 3,3 billion USD. Major part of Russian export is oil and gas, petroleum products, mineral fuels. In 2014 the volume of export of Russian coil to Malaysia reached 1,5 billion ton. In 2015 due to oil prices drop, tradeover between Russia and Malaysia decreased by 40,8%, comparing to the previous year and reached 1950,8 million USD. Malaysian export to Russia is mostly dominated by electric machinery and equipment (24,8%), equipment and mechanical devices (18,6%), fats and oils of animal and vegetable origin (14,3%).
In June 2007 Russian Public Joint Stock company "Gazprom" and Malaysian company "Petronas" signed a Memorandum of collaboration, involving interaction of companies in different project both in Malaysian and Russia, as well as in third countries, science and technical cooperation in exploration, production, transportation and supply, underground storage, production of gas.
On October 8, 2015, Deputy Director of International cooperation Department of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation took part in 9th meeting of ministers of energy of the East Asia Summit, where problems of "clean energy" were discussed.
Malaysian-Russian Joins Intergovernment Commission on Cooperation in Defence, Defence Equipment and Technologies exists. Since 1991 Russia takes part in LIMA exhibition on a regular basis.
In the beginning of 1990-s Russian business circles provided great practical assistance in launching the first Malaysian microsatellite Tungsat-1. On October 2007 first Malaysian Astronaut Dr. Sheikh Muzaphar Shukor launched to the International Space Station aboard Russian spaceship Soyuz TMA-11 with Russia's assistance.
Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations actively participated in search operations of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, that disappeared in March 2014. In 2015 two multipurpose amphibious aircrafts "Beriev Be-200" of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, produced by "Irkut" aircraft manufacturing corporation, took part in extinguishing of forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, that caused an extreme haze in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines.
A distinct and perspective direction of Russian-Malaysia trade and economy cooperation is innovation business projects, based on innovative, world-wie accepted licensed Russian inventions in nano and biotechnology areas. One of the examples of such cooperation is the establishment of Russian-Malaysian Joint project in biotechnology to create Dengue vaccine, located in Malaysia. This project stipulates organisation of scientific and production facility for manufacturing and distributing vaccines (including the agriculture purposed), based on Russian innovation technologies of genetic engineering.