Canadian PM Mark Carney Touches Down In Malaysia For 47th ASEAN Summit

SEPANG, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in Malaysia to attend the  47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits slated to begin tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur.

The special aircraft carrying Carney and his delegation landed at the Bunga Raya Complex of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 11.45 pm.

He was received by Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming and was given a guard-of-honour mounted by 28 officers and personnel from the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment.

This marks the Prime Minister's first visit to Malaysia since assuming office in March.

He was accompanied by his spouse Diana Fox Carney, as well as the country's Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu and senior government officials.

Carney will be attending the summit as Guest of the Chair at the invitation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He will also hold a bilateral meeting with Anwar, where discussions are expected to focus on strengthening Malaysia–Canada relations, charting new directions for future collaboration, and exploring opportunities in trade and investment, halal cooperation, energy cooperation, cybersecurity, and people-to-people connectivity.

Besides Carney, other leaders who also arrived this evening were Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone who landed at 8.21 pm and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at 10.17 pm. 

International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank regional vice president for East Asia and the Pacific Carlos Filipe Jaramillo also touched down at 10.30 pm.

Meanwhile, the arrival of foreign leaders is expected to continue into the early morning with Vietnam's Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and his wife Lê Thị Bích Trân, who are scheduled to land at 1.30 am.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will be also arriving with Chính aboard the same flight from Hanoi.

-- BERNAMA