KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said today issued a stern warning against irresponsible quarters to not try to challenge Malaysia's sovereignty.
The warning by the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) came on the heels of Malaysia's victory against the now defunct Sulu Sultanate, and the decision by the Spanish court earlier this month to sentence Dr Gonzalo Stampa to six months imprisonment for contempt of court. .
Stampa was the arbitrator who controversially ordered Malaysia to pay US$14.92 billion (RM70.19b) to self-claimed heirs of the defunct Sulu Sultanate.
"The Madani government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will never compromise and that we will continue to defend the nation from any forms of threats.
"Do not ever challenge Malaysia's sovereignty," she said in a social media posting on her Facebook this morning.
In the same posting, Azalina also stressed the importance for all countries around the world to cooperate and look into the weaknesses of the laws and abuse in the process of arbitration following the outcome of the legal tussle between Malaysia and the defunct Sulu Sultanate.
"This is important to avoid the same incident like this from recurring and affecting other states," she said.
In the same social media posting, Azalina also shared her meetings with the Europe Diplomatic Corps.
"I hope this discussion today will create a start to the cooperation and formation of working groups between members of the European Union and Malaysia on issues related to international arbitration, including including third-party financing, as well as best practices and ethical codes related to arbitration," she said.
It was reported that eight citizens of the Philippines, who claimed to be heirs of the defunct Sulu sultanate, had filed for arbitration proceedings in Spain to seek billions of US dollars from Malaysia over Sabah, and a court in Madrid, Spain had in March 2019 appointed Gonzalo Stampa to be the arbitrator for the Sulu claimants' case.
The French Court in November last year annulled the order of the rising of statue to be mortgaged against a Malaysian Diplomatic building in Paris by a self-claimed Sulu group from the Philippines.