KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign investment commitments remain unaffected despite Malaysia's continued support for the Palestinian people, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
This is despite the fierce speech he made during the 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Economic Leaders' Week in front of United States President Joe Biden, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestine-Israel conflict.
He told the Dewan Rakyat today that Malaysia had secured a commitment of RM63.02 billion after the meeting.
"I understand the concerns if it would affect the economic development in our country.
"The International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) adopted the strategy of inclusivity, sustainability and resilience to establish relationships at Asia Pacific.
"We used the opportunities (during Apec) for official two-way meeting or during coffee breaks in between the session to explain our stance.
"We managed to meet companies such as Google, Tiktok, Microsoft and others, and we managed to secure commitments of RM63.02 billion," he said during Prime Minister Question Time (PMQT) today.
He was responding to a question by Aminolhuda Hassan (PH-Sri Gading) following the country's participation in the 8th Extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Economic Leaders' Week recently.
Anwar said his speech before Biden was not initially planned but he had to take the opportunity to do so where he stated that countries were silent when atrocities were taking place in Gaza.
"I said you cannot dictate languages of discourse.
"They cannot force us to decide our stance, and I said the attacks must end now.
"More days go by and more children and others are dying," he added.
In a supplementary question raised by Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (PN-Machang) on whether the government could lobby other countries who are members of the Rome Statute to bring Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be charged for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Anwar said that although Malaysia is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, Malaysia has sent delegates from the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) to provide assistance to the countries which are doing so.
In this case, Malaysia has spoken to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on cooperation in order to attend the ICC conference.