PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in line with its foreign policy as a non-aligned country, say international relations experts.

Political scientist Dr Chandra Muzaffar said Malaysia’s stance is acceptable, as the country is internationally non-aligned and not required to follow the official position of the West.

“Looking at the recent UN General Assembly, we did vote on the aggression against Ukraine – we are against the violation of sovereignty, but we must also ask why Russia was compelled to act this way.

“This is because Russia is genuinely concerned about its border security. You don’t do things to others if you don’t want them done to you.

“The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) was established to counter Russia, and they (Russia) had themselves dismantled the Warsaw Pact as a gesture of peace – all they had asked in return was for Nato not to extend its borders,” he said, citing this as a reason for Russia’s current response.

Russia has long resisted Ukraine’s move towards the European Union and Nato.

On March 2, Malaysia voted in favour of the 11th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly, which adopted the resolution entitled “Aggression Against Ukraine”.

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Wisma Putra said that while Malaysia might not have agreed to every single word in the resolution, it supported and voted in favour of it, in line with the country’s long-standing position on the need to consistently uphold the principles of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states – principles which are sacrosanct to Malaysia.

Dr Hoo Chiew-Ping, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia senior lecturer in Strategic Studies and International Relations, said the fundamental principles of Malaysian foreign policy was to maintain neutrality and non-alignment.

She said that in this matter, the prime minister and foreign minister had made this stance very clear, and Singapore’s imposition of sanctions will not influence Malaysian policy in any way.

Hoo said it was not easy either for Asean to shift from its long-standing political stance because doing so would affect regional geopolitical dynamics.

Merdeka Centre co-founder and programme director Ibrahim Suffian said Malaysia’s cautious and measured stance was part of its non-aligned posture.

“We want to chart an independent root yet not stray too far – this too takes into account our commercial and geopolitical interests,” he said, adding that upsetting too many people could affect the market and trade relations.

Malaysian exports to Russia were worth US$714.69mil (RM2.98bil) in 2020, according to the United Nations Comtrade database. Among the products were electronic and electrical equipment, rubber, cocoa, as well as animal and vegetable fats and oils.

Washington’s Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy non-resident fellow Munira Mustaffa said Malaysia was cautious because it had to address not just the specific sanctions but also the wider, indirect ones.

“Again, it is possible that our policy on this may change once a UN mandate is issued. Also, given the fact that many major Russian banks have been blocked from SWIFT (the global messaging system for financial institutions), it is worth noting that any international entity hoping to have transactions with Russian businesses will find it difficult moving forward,” she said.