Malaysian Minister Hopes Biden Will Acknowledge ASEAN

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department (Economy), Mustapa Mohamed expressed high hopes that Joe Biden, who just won the United States Presidential election, would accord more attention to ASEAN. He said Biden whose victory was generally well-received by the whole world, needed to make changes considering that his predecessor Donald Trump did not pay much heed to the region. “We hope he will bring change. For example, we in Asia felt we were being ignored because the former president as we noticed did not pay much attention to Southeast Asia, especially ASEAN,” he said. He said this in an interview with Bernama TV on ‘Ruang Bicara Khas’ to discuss on 'Budget 2021: Economic Agenda for the People'. Mustapa, who served as International Trade and Industry Minister from 2009 to 2018, said the US is a major economic powerhouse, contributing about 20 per cent to the world economy. “It is the largest military power to date. Anyway, it is a powerful country,” he noted. He also hoped that Biden would strive to boost world trade without restrictions, particularly on goods from Malaysia and other countries. “We hope tensions will be reduced, whether economic, trade and political. We have high hopes that relations between Malaysia and the US will improve,” he said. -- BERNAMA