“It needs to be applied to all countries,” he told the media on the sidelines of the 17th Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) here today.

Mohamad, popularly known as Mat Sabu, said Malaysia welcomed the nuclear talks between United States President Donald J Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12.

“It’s a good effort… We the world did experience atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We don’t want it to be repeated in the Asian region.

“That was the technology 60 or 70 years ago. We do not know the nuclear technology that we have now.

“It is very dangerous and we will give our full support to any effort towards denuclearisation,” he said.

Asked to comment on US Secretary of Defence James Mattis’s speech that was rather hard on China, Mat Sabu said Malaysia had always maintained its neutrality, something that the country has been championing since the time of second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein.

In his speech, Mattis had specifically called out Beijing’s militarisation of artificial islands in the area.

“We do not want any clash to occur in the South China Sea and we are very concerned about what is happening there,” said Mat Sabu, adding that Asean member countries had always carried out dialogues with both China and the United States.

He also described his attendance at the SLD as the new defence minister as a good opportunity for him to get acquainted with his Asian counterparts as well as those from the United States, New Zealand, Australia, France and Britain.

“It allows me to build relationships quickly,” said Mat Sabu, who called on Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday and is scheduled to meet Mattis tomorrow.