KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah said health diplomacy would be a priority for Malaysia.

"That is why I have been toying with the idea of health diplomacy is something of great importance for now. We have been talking about vaccines, but I think health diplomacy is where the government and non-state actors (need to) look at global policy solutions to actually improve global health.

"As the pandemic happened to be one of the challenges and Covid-19 is the real story for the day and vaccines is something that is important,” he said.

He was speaking at the "Adapting to Covid-19: Malaysian Foreign Policy Priorities for the New World” forum hosted by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.

Other attendees included international strategic studies lecturers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Dr Hoo Chiew Ping and Universiti Malaya Dr Roy Anthony Rogers, as well as ISIS Malaysia chief executive Herizal Hazri.