LONDON: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad arrived here on Friday night for a three-day working visit to the United Kingdom.
He is accompanied on the trip by his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, Bernama reported.
Also in London are Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman and several senior officials who arrived here earlier on Friday.
The Prime Minister will kick off his trip on Saturday morning by meeting with representatives of the United Kingdom and Eire (Ireland) Council (UKEC) for Malaysian Students at the Malaysian High Commission here.
Dr Mahathir will then tour the new Al Bukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum in Bloomsbury. The gallery, established with the support of Malaysia’s Al Bukhary Foundation, is helping the British Museum redisplay its important collections of Islamic heritage.
On Sunday, Dr Mahathir will first attend a Hari Raya open house hosted by the Malaysian High Commission at Templewood Gardens in Camden; before heading to Cambridge University to deliver a talk titled “Democracy in Malaysia and Southeast Asia” at the Cambridge Union.
According to High Commission officials, the talk is expected to attract well-known UK personalities and academicians as well as students from higher learning institutions.
On Monday, the Prime Minister will sit with UK captains of industry in a meeting organised by the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) and Maybank. The meeting will explore areas of cooperation and ways of further strengthening bilateral trade between the UK and Malaysia.
Over the last decade, trade between the two countries has grown by two per cent per annum, ranging between RM12 billion and RM17 billion annually.