Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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201. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has spoken directly with the Malaysian Foreign Minister in the past 12 months. [47172/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland and Malaysia have enjoyed close and fruitful diplomatic relations since 1974. In 1995, Ireland opened an Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Ireland’s first resident Embassy in Southeast Asia. The Embassy of Malaysia in Ireland was established in Dublin in November 2001.

Malaysia remains the only country in the region to have a resident Embassy in Dublin and we are appreciative of the scope that this provides for enhanced economic and political relations. There is excellent ongoing engagement between officials through our respective Embassies. Last July bilateral consultations took place at official level.

Cooperation between Ireland and Malaysia continues to grow, particularly in the areas of education, trade, investment and tourism. Over 1,000 Malaysians studied in Ireland in 2021. There is considerable scope for economic ties to develop further and I was pleased to note a 8.5% increase in exports to Malaysia between 2020 and 2021.

We also have excellent relations with Malaysia through our engagement at multilateral fora. While I have not met bilaterally with Foreign Minister Abdullah during the past year, we both attended and engaged in a range of discussions at last week's UN General Assembly in New York. I had a very good meeting with Malaysia's former Deputy Foreign Minister, Marzuki Yahya during the ASEM Foreign Ministers Meeting in Madrid in December 2019.