Ong Kian Ming said that under the deal, Malaysia should seek funding and investments from the US in areas such as critical minerals and power generation.
“Malaysia should also explore opportunities with companies from other countries that can provide similar technologies and value propositions,” he said in a statement.
Ong’s remarks followed claims by the opposition that the deal compromised Malaysia’s sovereignty. Questions were also raised about the requirement for Malaysia to “adopt or maintain” any prohibition or restriction imposed by the US on third countries deemed a threat to its economic or national security.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers subsequently said that Malaysia’s sovereignty and national interests remained fully protected, while the US envoy to Malaysia said the deal provided a more balanced partnership between the two nations.
Ong said it was unlikely for the US to terminate the agreement, commonly referred to as ART, should Malaysia fail to align its policies with Washington’s interests.
He said US policies on a host of matters were currently in flux as they were largely determined “by the whims and fancies” of president Donald Trump.
With the exception of Trump’s preference for tariffs, Ong said the president had flip-flopped on his engagement with China, Russia, the European Union and Japan on a number of issues.
“Without policy stability, it is hard to ask for policy ‘alignment’,” he said.
He also said that Malaysia was not an important enough player on the international stage to warrant special policy influence from the US on matters of economic and strategic value.
He said Trump would focus on the “big powers” like China, India, Russia, Brazil and the EU, not Southeast Asia.
Ong said Trump would remember Malaysia as the country where he danced with a troupe of performers on his arrival, and that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was “a very good man”.
“In all other matters, it will be left to negotiations at the working level, where both sides will seek room to find consensus in some areas and the ability to disagree in others, without threatening the termination of the deal,” he said.
Ong said Trump would have seen Malaysia in a negative light if Putrajaya chose not to sign the agreement, as he had agreed to attend the Asean Summit.
“This would have left a bad impression and worse still, exposed Malaysia to future punitive measures,” he said, referring to ongoing investigations on the semiconductor industry which has yet to be hit by tariffs and has the potential to affect significant parts of Malaysia’s electrical and electronics sector.
He also said that Malaysia was already being monitored as a destination for “transshipments” from the US to China, and used to procure high GPU chips to bypass existing US restrictions on chip sales to China.
“What if the lack of a trade deal with the US leads to stricter quotas on GPU chips imposed by the US on Malaysia?
“This would have major repercussions on current and future data centre investments in the country. Nvidia would not bat an eyelid to ‘sacrifice’ its GPU chip commitments to Malaysia if we were to find ourselves on a US ‘blacklist’ for high-end chips.”