Palm oil import boycott: India asks Malaysia leadership to do ‘serious introspection’

Referring to the palm oil import boycott, Delhi said that trade cannot be “impervious” to the state of the bilateral relationship.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with his Malaysian counterpart Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, on the sidelines of 5th Eastern Economic Forum, at Vladivostok, in Russia. (File/PTI)

Calling Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comments “unacceptable”, India on Thursday slammed Malaysia for raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and asked its leadership to do “serious introspection”.

Referring to the palm oil import boycott, Delhi said that trade cannot be “impervious” to the state of the bilateral relationship.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that “his statements are unacceptable and are not keeping with the facts and we hope Malaysia will do serious introspection on the position it has taken”.

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Asked about the impact on trade between the two countries, the MEA spokesperson said that while the “decision to import any commodity or otherwise is the prerogative of the importing company”, at the “same time they are not impervious to the state of affairs between any two countries”.

Mahathir had said on Tuesday that he would not retract his criticism of New Delhi’s actions on Kashmir despite Indian traders calling for an unprecedented boycott of Malaysian palm oil.

India’s top vegetable oil trade body on Monday asked its members to stop buying Malaysian palm oil after Mahathir said at the UN General Assembly last month that India had “invaded and occupied” Kashmir, a region also claimed by Pakistan.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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