KUALA LUMPUR: The European Union (EU) has never imposed a ban on palm oil exports from Malaysia, a top EU diplomat clarified on Monday.
In fact, local palm oil exports to the world's largest trading bloc jumped by 55 per cent last year.
European External Action Service managing director (Asia and the Pacific) Gunnar Wiegand said some quarters had mistaken the bloc's decision to cut subsidies for palm oil-based biofuels as an export ban on the crop.
"The EU emphasises only sustainable palm oil production that does not contribute to deforestation. This, unfortunately, has been wrongly portrayed as anti-palm oil sentiments.
"Nevertheless, the EU is pursuing constructive engagements with both countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) on this matter through a Joint Working Group and the Sustainability of Palm Oil in Malaysia and Indonesia technical assistance project.
"European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius will visit Malaysia soon to engage with the industry players and smallholders," he told the New Straits Times in an exclusive interview recently.
The palm oil row, however, has not dampened trade ties between both parties.
The EU was Malaysia's fifth largest trading partner and almost one-fifth of the country's foreign direct investments came from it, Wiegand said.
"Bilateral relations between Malaysia and the EU will reach a new threshold once both parties sign a new Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA), possibly during the first-ever EU-Asean Summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec 14.
"The PCA will serve as a new enabling framework that will allow both parties to step up our cooperation in foreign policy, security, justice and home affairs. It will pave the way for new cooperation in areas, such as environment, climate, renewable energy, science and technology.
"Malaysia is a very important economic security partner for the EU, especially in terms of having secure and stable supply chains," he said.
On traditional security challenges, Wiegand said Malaysia and the EU had a shared interest in preserving maritime security in the South China Sea — the transit route for almost 30 per cent of EU trade.
As such, he said, Malaysia was a crucial partner for the bloc's strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
"Asean is in the middle of Indo-Pacific, and Malaysia is in the middle of Asean. So, strengthening ties with Malaysia is very much on the cards for us.
"Malaysia and the EU abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"That makes us natural partners for maritime security in the region.
"We have offered to cooperate with Malaysia on maritime security, in particular, to facilitate faster information exchange between relevant agencies on both ends.
"The cooperation could be extended to include the possibilities of training and joint exercises.
"Besides that, we have offered new instruments to Malaysia to step up our cooperation on the cybersecurity and counterterrorism fronts," he said.
On Aug 1, Wiegand co-chaired a Senior Officials' Meeting with the Foreign Ministry's deputy secretary-general of multilateral affairs, Datuk Cheong Loon Lai, and had a private audience with Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah.
His next stop will be Cambodia, where he will attend the EU-Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the Asean Regional Forum, alongside Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah.