KUALA LUMPUR: Concerns over sovereignty are at the heart of Malaysia’s objection to China’s most recent map, which asserts authority over nearly the whole of the South China Sea, says Diplomacy and Foreign Relations Institute director-general Datuk Dr Shazelina Zainul Abidin.
She said that in terms of diplomacy, the government would refute any information released by third parties that was unfavourable to Malaysia’s interests or factually incorrect.
“We either have sent in our protest note, or we are about to, and the whole idea about this in diplomacy is to make sure that we are not complacent with what happens.
“We do not recognise the unilateral decision by China to release that map, the same way that they do not recognise a lot of the unilateral decisions that other countries make.
“This is all about sovereignty issues,” she told reporters when met at the Cultural and Civilisational Diplomacy: The Framework and Best Practices forum here yesterday, Bernama reported.
On Monday, China’s Natural Resources Ministry issued the “China Standard Map Edition 2023”, which also covers the exclusive economic zone maritime areas of Malaysia near Sabah and Sarawak, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and several areas in India.
Two days later, the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the country did not recognise China’s claims in the South China Sea, and that the map had no binding authority over Malaysia.
Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said on Thursday that the government would send a protest note to China over the latter’s claims.
On the forum, Shazelina said the programme was aimed to train junior diplomats to be more holistic, grounded in own principles, moral beliefs and spirituality, rather than just going after economic, financial or trade terms.
“And that gives them a better understanding of where Malaysia needs to position itself in the international stage,” she said.
