PRIME Minister Najib Razak has reaffirmed Malaysia’s six-decade long friendship with the United States, saying that both nations share “deep-seated values”.

In an op-ed published in The Hill, a top US political website, Najib said, on the eve of his meeting with President Donald Trump and the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Malaysia is committed to the fight against radicalisation and terror.

“The world changed on September 11, 2001, and America has suffered further attacks on its soil that were inspired by that same false and poisonous ideology. My nation, too, has been forced to address the threat of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), known as Daesh in my part of the world,” he said.

“There has, so far, been only one successful Daesh-linked attack in Malaysia (and, thankfully, no fatalities), but that has not been for want of trying.”

Najib went on to describe “your enemy, those who blaspheme against the religion of a majority of Malaysians by claiming their terrorism is Islamic, is our enemy, too”.

Malaysia, he said, has fought IS with success, particularly its deradicalisation programme.

“We have fought this through intelligence sharing and counter-terrorism measures in our region and beyond.”

Police have thwarted at least 13 major terrorist attacks since 2012, according to Najib.

Najib’s White House visit has been criticised by the opposition, coming in the heels of the US Department of Justice suits to seize billions of ringgit of assets allegedly bought with funds siphoned off state investor, 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

In the civil cases, the DoJ alleged that between 2009 and 2015, more than US$4.5 billion belonging to 1MDB was diverted by high-level officials of the state investor and their associates.

The DoJ cites Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) as the main beneficiary of the assets it is seeking to recover.

In September last year, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Rahman Dahlan confirmed that MO1 was Najib. – September 12, 2017.