00:00Malaysia has a policy of active non-alignment, or we in ASEAN says, centrality, engaging with
00:10all parties, notwithstanding their ideological differences and major policy shifts.
00:23And that has allowed us to engage confidently with all countries.
00:32A Malaysian supplier enters your supply chain without the political complications that have
00:41made sourcing decisions so difficult elsewhere.
00:46In the current environment, there's a genuine commercial consideration.
00:55Now, the defense industrial base we are trying to build is one where Malaysian companies earn
01:02and hold their place in international supply chains on the strength of their work, where
01:11the discipline that wins a contract also keeps it.
01:15That is the only foundation worth building on.
01:17Now, let me be clear about what government, what the government will get right.
01:23Intellectual property will be protected promptly and reliably.
01:27Strategic trade controls will be enforced.
01:32Contracts will hold.
01:34The law will apply to everyone in the same way without exception.
01:39These are conditions which none of what I have described this morning is possible and we take that
01:50as a major commitment seriously.
01:55Now, the government's role in all of this is to create the conditions for serious work to happen.
02:02The commercial decisions belong to the companies.
02:05It's not the business of the Prime Minister or Defence Minister or the Chief of Police.
02:12What belongs to us is the quality of the ground beneath those decisions.
02:20The conversations that will matter most this week will not take place on this stage.
02:26They will take place between people who are meeting for the first time, working through problems that have not yet
02:33been fully defined.
02:34In the early stages of work that may take years to bear fruit.
02:40We are glad, of course, to be hosting those conversations.
02:46And we look forward to what comes out of them.
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