Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia and India have agreed to elevate their relationship from an enhanced strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Anwar, who is on a three-day official visit to India beginning August 19, said the mutual decision to enhance the relationship with comprehensive strategic partnership marked a significant step forward. The Prime Minister acknowledged the long-standing ties between Malaysia and India. and stressed the importance of further strengthening these relations across multiple areas, among others including digital investments, trade, construction, agriculture, education, research and military collaboration. And as I've said to him personally and to the colleagues, his friendship is sincere, not only when I'm Prime Minister, but when I was just nobody, he was very kind as a true friend.
And that of course is most meaningful to me and my delegation and to the country. And that makes all our deliberations and discussions rather easy. We have agreed to enhance further and make it a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Yes, Malaysia and India from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru and Tukabudur Rahman have established good relations. But we realize under our generation that this must be further strengthened in the multi-tip areas. Anwar said this at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at Hyderabad House on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Anwar expressed his gratitude to Modi and the Indian government for their warm hospitality and affirmed that Malaysia considers India a great and true friend.
So my thing, firstly thank you Prime Minister and the Indian government for the splendid hospitality accorded to us and the delegation and and more so to consider Malaysia a great and true friend. And I must give you this assurance that it is reciprocal and we will reinvigorate this sort of working relations in all fields. We discussed, frankly, in the bilateral meetings and also in the private conversations, without or no holds barred, we discussed as true brothers on all issues. sensitive or unlike wise because this is true meaning of friendship. I personally believe and I've said this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, that there are so many areas that we need to explore further.
He said his discussions with Modi, both in bilateral meetings and private conversations, were open and frank. Anwar has also assured that Malaysia would remain committed to reinvigorating these working relations in all fields. We have initiated a lot of new programs. And we would hope that Indian companies with Malaysian companies collaborate further in all fields, including the new challenging areas like energy transition, digitalization, and also food security. Earlier, Malaysia and India also solidified their bilateral relations with the exchange of eight Memorandums of Understanding.
including worker recruitment, traditional medicine, digital technologies, culture, tourism and public administration. These agreements are expected to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations, promoting cooperation across various fields and creating new opportunities for mutual growth and development.