Malaysia–Soviet Union relations

History

Despite Malaysia's early anti-communist foreign policy due to the Malayan Emergency, it later established diplomatic relations with Soviet Union in 1968. Following the establishment of relations, Malaysia expanded its relations to other Soviet influence countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic and Yugoslavia. During the time, the Soviets were also keen to develop the relations by promoting Russian culture with cooperations such as the exchanging of radio and television programmes, artists and in educational field. However, during the Cold War period, the relations later were made cautious by Malaysia when it was concerned about the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the Soviet role in the Vietnam War and Soviet intervention in the Indian Ocean which may could lead to the domino theories.

Economic relations

Although the Soviet Union became the main support to the Malayan Communists, it also became the main purchaser of Malayan rubber and displaced the United States as the largest purchaser of natural rubber with 134,000 tons purchased between January–July 1963 compared to the United States with only 96,000 tons. However, all the purchases were made through the London market to avoid the friction with Indonesia and the purchasing activity. In 1967, Malaysia also signed a trade agreement with the Soviet Union which was considered as the country's first agreement with a communist country, and as a prelude to full diplomatic relations.