Pakistan Navy Chief Holds Urgent Meetings With Top Generals After Modi’s Malaysia Visit

Malaysia: Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf recently visited Malaysia. This visit is very important, because at the same time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also in Malaysia. There have been talks between the two countries on defense and maritime security, and all this is happening amid rising tensions in the Indian Ocean.

What happened in these meetings?

ISPR (the media wing of Pakistan Army) said that Navies of both countries openly talked about regional maritime security. They emphasized increasing cooperation regarding piracy, terrorism, and safe shipping routes. There was talk of further strengthening joint naval exercises, training programs, and intelligence/information sharing.
Commitment to maintain peace and stability in the Indian Ocean was reiterated from both sides.

Admiral Ashraf thanked Malaysian Navy Chief Admiral Tan Sri Zulhelmi bin Ithainan for his warm hospitality.
He also said that Pakistan-Malaysia relations are very old and strong and he wants to deepen them further.

Why is this tour being considered special?

After Operation Sindoor in May last year, the entire military of Pakistan has become very active. The Pakistani Army, Navy, and Air Force—all three are busy improving relations with their counterparts. There are continuous visits to second and third countries. In such a situation, the visit of Pak Navy Chief to Malaysia is also being considered a part of the same sequence.

What does this tour mean?

On the one hand, this is a very normal defense cooperation visit. But on the other hand, when Modi ji was also there at the same time and there were talks about defense cooperation between India and Malaysia, then this coincidence certainly seems a bit interesting. Both countries want to further strengthen their relations with Malaysia from different angles. Now it remains to be seen in the coming days what effect this "parallel diplomacy" will have.