Security, not scandal, on bulletin for Trump, Malaysia’s Najib

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is set to acquire Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak to a White House on Tuesday, a assembly approaching to concentration on confidence issues while steering transparent of a U.S. review into a Malaysian crime scandal.

The revisit is vicious for Najib, who faces elections subsequent year and wants to vigilance he is still acquire during a White House notwithstanding a rapist examine by a U.S. Justice Department into a state account called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib founded a fund, that is confronting income laundering probes in during slightest 6 countries including a United States, Switzerland and Singapore. He has denied any wrongdoing. The White House pronounced it would not criticism on a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

“Investing in a long-term attribute between a countries, that in itself provides a substructure for us to residence issues of concern, and that would embody crime and transparency,” a White House central said, vocalization on condition of anonymity.

Trump skeleton to speak with Najib about North Korea’s chief provocations, and ways a United States and Malaysia could do some-more to hindrance a enlargement of Islamic State in southeast Asia, White House mouthpiece Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday.

The South China Sea will also be partial of a talks, as will trade and investment, Sanders said.

Malaysia has increasing troops team-work with a United States in a South China Sea, where it has overlapping claims with several countries.

“Malaysia is quite concerned about a Chinese Navy’s activities off a seashore of Sabah and Sarawak where state-owned Petronas is pumping oil and gas,” pronounced Murray Hiebert, a southeast Asia consultant during a Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Najib had once enjoyed tighten ties with Trump’s prototype Barack Obama, personification golf with a Democratic boss in Hawaii in 2014.

But family cooled over a 1MDB scandal. The Justice Department sued to seize some $1.7 billion in resources it pronounced were bought with wasted 1MDB funds.

The Obama administration had also turn vicious of a Malaysian supervision crackdown on a media and domestic opponents.

Najib, who has boasted about golfing with Trump, is reduction expected to hear about tellurian rights issues from a Republican.

“With Trump in a White House and his administration’s downplaying of tellurian rights and democracy, Najib’s doing of a antithesis is not expected to be a concentration of a White House meeting,” Hiebert said.

Reporting by Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom; modifying by Grant McCool

Article source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-malaysia/security-not-scandal-on-agenda-for-trump-malaysias-najib-idUSKCN1BN0DZ