PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has congratulated Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan for winning a historic presidential run-off election.
In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister said Erdogan’s re-election augured well for the future of Malaysia-Turkiye relations.
“Turkiye will continue to play a constructive role as an important regional and global player. Malaysia looks forward to working closely with Turkiye to further elevate our existing excellent bilateral relations,” he stated.
Erdogan retained the presidency with 52.14% of the votes, according to the head of Turkiye’s supreme election council Ahmet Yener who announced the official results on Sunday.
Anwar was among the many foreign leaders who sent their best wishes to Erdogan, with US President Joe Biden also tweeting that he looked forward to working together as Nato allies on bilateral issues and sharing global challenges with the Turkish president.
In November last year, just hours after being sworn in as Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister, Anwar took a congratulatory phone call from Erdogan.
Both leaders are known to enjoy close relations and often exchange views.
Malaysia, through the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team SMART, was one of the first countries to assist Turkiye in the search and rescue of victims in the immediate aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Turkiye in early February which killed tens of thousands of people and flattened wide areas of cities.
Anwar also went to Turkiye on Erdogan’s request for a first-hand account of the tragedy and also witnessed the recovery efforts of the SMART team.
Erdogan, 69, served as prime minister of Turkiye from 2003 to 2014 and mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001.
