Malaysia pledges to maintain good ties with other countries

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Source: Kyodo)

He said trade is important to the economy and Malaysia will make efforts to ensure that the market for its products will be as large as possible.

The PM stressed that Malaysia will take a neutral stance and would not take part in any move by big powers to impose sanctions against countries which disagreed with them.

Malaysia pays attention to establishing relations with other countries in the world, he said.

Mahathir Mohamad was officially sworn in as Prime Minister of Malaysia on May 10 after a shock election victory, 15 years after he stood down. The 92-year-old man, who had governed for more than two decades, became the world's oldest elected leader.

He came out of retirement and defected to the opposition to take on and beat former protege Najib Razak. His historic win ousted the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957.

Official results showed that Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) had won 113 of the parliament's 222 seats, exceeding the simple majority required to rule.

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional headed by former Prime Minister Najib Razak won only 79 seats.

Mahathir served as Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003./.

VNA