   malaysia is an active member of various international organisations, including the commonwealth of nations, the united nations, the organisation of islamic cooperation, and the non-aligned movement. it has also in recent times been an active proponent of regional co-operation. ==foreign policy 1957â1969== malaysia has been a member of the commonwealth since independence in 1957, when it entered into the anglo-malayan defence agreement (amda) with the united kingdom whereby britain guaranteed the defence of malaya (and later malaysia). the presence of british and other commonwealth troops were crucial to malaysia's security during the malayan emergency (1948â1960) and the indonesian confrontation (1962â1966), which was sparked by malaya's merger with the british colonies of singapore, sarawak and north borneo to form malaysia in 1963. the british defence guarantee ended following britain's decision in 1967 to withdraw its forces east of suez, and was replaced in 1971 with the five power defence arrangements (fpda) by which britain, australia, new zealand, malaysia and singapore agreed to co-operate in the area of defence, and to "consult" in the event of external aggression or the threat of attack on malaysia or singapore. the fpda continues to operate, and the five powers have a permanent integrated area defence system based at rmaf butterworth, and organise annual naval and air exercises. under the leadership of prime minister tunku abdul rahman (up to 1970), malaysia pursued a strongly pro-commonwealth anti-communist foreign policy. nonetheless, malaysia was active in the opposition to apartheid that saw south africa quit the commonwealth in 1961, and was a founding member of the association of southeast asian nations (asean) in 1967 and the organisation of the islamic conference (oic) in 1969, with the tunku as its first secretary-general in 1971. ==foreign policy since 1969== under prime ministers tun abdul razak and tun hussein onn, malaysia shifted its policy towards non-alignment and neutrality. malaysia's foreign policy is officially based on the principle of neutrality and maintaining peaceful relations with all countries, regardless of their ideology or political system, and to further develop relations with other countries in the region. in 1971, asean issued its neutralist and anti-nuclear zone of peace, freedom and neutrality (zopfan) declaration. in the same year, malaysia joined the [[non-ali
Foreign_relations_of_Malaysia Malaysia_and_the_Commonwealth_of_Nations Political_history_of_Malaysia