Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Anifah Aman has skipped key meetings of the Association of Southeast Nations this week in the Laotian capital with no explanation other than “urgent matters’ at home.
Anifah Aman was represented by his ministry’s secretary-general, Othman Hashim, in talks Sunday and early Monday.
A ministry, who did not want to be identified, said Anifah “at the moment is not attending as he has urgent matters to attend to.” Another Malaysian official in Vientiane said Anifah is dealing with “pressing matters at home,” and that Othman will lead the Malaysian delegation.
Anifah’s absence is striking because Malaysia is one of the claimants in the dispute with China in the South China Sea, which has dominated talks at this year’s ASEAN foreign minister’s talks.
Anifah’s name was in the official list of attendees released by host Laos, and the Malaysian government issued a statement on Friday saying Anifah will lead the Malaysian delegation in the series of meetings in Laos from Saturday to Tuesday. This indicated that his absence was a last-minute development.
It was not clear if it had anything to do with a growing scandal at home involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and a state investment fund from which $3.5 billion was stolen, allegedly with collusion of people close to Najib.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:AP)
