Malaysia - In a difficult situation

Since its independence, Malaysia has been endeavouring to build an efficient navy. However, corruption and funding problems are hampering important procurement programmes.

Malaysia is a founding member of Asean and maintains defence agreements with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK as part of the Five Power Defence Arrangement. However, in the event of a threat to one of the member states, only mutual consultations are provided for.

In recent years, the Malaysian armed forces have been confronted with shrinking military budgets. In 2014, the budget was 4.035 billion US dollars, in 2018 it was only 3.208 billion, which corresponds to around 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product. These declining defence budgets also have a serious impact on the Malaysian navy, which is in the middle of an ambitious fleet renewal process.