1824
1824

Anglo Dutch Treaty and establishment of Malaya as a Crown colony

1957
August 1957

Federation of Malaya independence

1957
September 1957

Federation of Malaya joins the United Nations

1959
1959

Tunku Abdul Rahman is elected first Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya

1963
1963

Malaysia Agreement: Federation of Malaysia is formed, with British colonies of North Borneo (now Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore joining Malaya

1964
1964

Tunku Abdul Rahman is elected Prime Minister of the new Federation of Malaysia

1965
1965

Singapore withdraws from Malaysia

1967
1967

Malaysia, together with Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand establish the Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia (to be known as ASEAN)

1970
1970

Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as PM, replaced by Abdul Razak

1974
1974

Malaysia establishes diplomatic ties with China

1976
1976

Hussein Onn becomes Prime Minister after Razak’s death

1981
1981

Mahathir Mohamad becomes prime minister after the resignation of Hussein Onn, and wins the next five consecutive general elections (1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999), ruling for 22 years

2003
2003

Mahathir Mohamad resigns, succeeded by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

2009
2009

Abdullah steps down as prime minister, replaced by deputy, Najib Abdul Razak

2013
2013

Malaysia-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership established

2014
2014

Malaysia-US Comprehensive Partnership announced

2015
2015

Exposure of 1 MDB fraud claims

2016
November 2016

Najib Razak signs agreement with China’s Eximbank to fund East Coast Rail Link

2017
May 2017

Najib Razak attends 2017 Belt and Road Forum

2018
May 2018

Pakatan Harapan coalition led by Mahathir Mohamad wins general election for 14th Parliament of Malaysia

2018
June 2018

Government announces plan to withdraw Malaysian troops from Saudi Arabia

2018
November 2018

Government reverses earlier pledge to ratify UN human rights treaties

2019
5 April 2019

Mahathir announces Malaysia’s withdrawal from Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

2019
26 April 2019

Mahathir pledges support for China’s Belt and Road initiative

2019
September 2019

Mahathir launches new Foreign Policy Framework document

1900
2000
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