India and Malaysia yesterday witnessed a tectonic shift in relations with the signing of an extradition treaty, along with two other agreements.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and his Indian counterpart SM Krishnan signed the landmark document, which will help combat increasing cross-border crimes.

Both governments signed a draft treaty in 2002 and since then officials had been fine-tuning the document during their annual joint commission meetings between both countries.

Visiting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh also held a two-hour long meeting yesterday in the capital, where top cabinet ministers from both sides were also present.

Besides the extradition treaty, two other agreements were also signed -- a memorandum of understanding on higher education and the Malaysia-India capital market collaborative agreement between Malaysia's Securities Commission (SC) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).  

Malaysia's Higher Education Minister Mohd Khaled Nordin and India's Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal inked the education agreement.

SC chairman Zarinah Anwar signed the document pertaining to the capital market while SEBI was represented by its chairman CB Bhave.

- Bernama