New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah on Friday and expressed confidence on taking forward the bilateral strategic partnership.

Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar wrote, "Welcome FM of Malaysia Saifuddin Abdullah to our meeting today. Our conversations will take forward our Enhanced Strategic Partnership."

Abdullah participated in the foreign ministerial meeting of India and the ASEAN member states on Thursday.

Notably, the year 2022 marks 65 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Malaysia.

India and Malaysia share close relations anchored in vibrant people-to-people linkages, shared history and well-established trade relations. Both the countries enjoy robust trade relations with bilateral trade at USD 14.45 billion for the year 2020-21. Cooperation in defence and security has become an important pillar of India-Malaysia bilateral cooperation.

Addressing the Ministerial Session of Delhi Dialogue, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah on Thursday said India and ASEAN will resolve to strengthen and widen strategic partnerships including on the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

"This year is the India-ASEAN friendship year. And this is to commemorate the India-ASEAN partnership. This morning, we had a very fruitful India-ASEAN Foreign Minsters' meeting. We resolve to strengthen and widen our strategic partnership including on the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific," the Minister said.

"There are unique features from India combined with ASEAN that will strengthen our partnership. Just calculate the number of people in India and Indonesia and pulls the whole of ASEAN. It's almost 2 billion people. And the technology. India has the edge as a partner that can be of a lot of assistance," he added.

Earlier, in the month of April, Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, together with Dato' Amran Bin Mohamed Zin, Deputy Secretary General for Bilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia co-chaired the 5th Foreign Office Consultations (bilateral consultations) between India and Malaysia on 12 April 2022 at Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Reviewing the multi-faceted relations between India and Malaysia during the Foreign Office Consultations, both sides expressed their desire to advance the overall bilateral relations within the framework of the Enhanced Strategic Partnership of 2015. The Foreign Office Consultations provided an opportunity to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations and exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest.