MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday congratulated newly sworn in Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a telephone call, hoping to work with the new Malaysian leader particularly as the Southeast Asian region tackles various challenges.

“I just wanted to be — to immediately – to be one of the first to congratulate you because I’m very happy to hear the news. I was very happy to hear the news and I wanted to congratulate you immediately myself,” President Marcos said during the telephone call.

“I am sure this will make Malaysia and the Philippines even closer because we will be in touch with another.”

In his Twitter account, Anwar thanked President Marcos for the call, saying: “As founding fathers of ASEAN, our two nations have always enjoyed strong cooperation in bilateral, regional and multilateral forums.”

During the call, Anwar said Malaysia wants Philippines’ commitment for collaboration in different area such as trade and investment considering the two nations’ great tradition in the past.

President Marcos said strong partnership between the Philippines and Malaysia is important because of all the problems that the two nations are facing.

“We have to really work together, otherwise, we will not able to get over this crisis of the inflation, of the agricultural commodities, all of that. I saw your statement that the economy will be your first priority. And I found myself in the same position. So we can – I think we can help each other with Malaysia and the Philippines,” he said.

The President also told the Malaysian prime minister that they have some commonality: they both waited for a very, very long time to get into the position.

In response, Anwar said some in his social media team learned from the President’s expertise and strategy.

Anwar was sworn in as Malaysia’s prime minister Thursday, vowing to fight corruption and revive the Malaysian economy.

Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the king of Malaysia, named Anwar as the Southeast Asian nation’s 10th leader after seeing him clenching the majority support. (PND)