KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 ― Putrajaya’s diplomatic skills will be on test when leaders of rivals US and China visit the country in close proximity to one another over coming days, business publication Nikkei Asian Review has reported.

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the chief executive officer of think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), noted that trade-reliant Malaysia must avoid being seen as favouring one superpower over the other.

“As a small country that is dependent on foreign trade, Malaysia needs the markets of China and the US both at the same time.

“So we cannot afford to create a situation where we are closer to only one of them,” he was quoted saying in Nikkei Asian Review’s report yesterday titled “Walking the diplomatic tightrope between China, US”.

The publication reported that Malaysia’s apability in managing diplomatic relations with China and US will be put to the test when China’s prime minister Li Keqiang and US President Barack Obama join talks with Asean member nations this weekend.

Amid regional disquiet over China’s claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea area, Asean defence ministers did not manage in a recent meeting to issue a joint statement on the disputes allegedly due to a lack of consensus on wording, Nikkei Asian Review reported.

But the publication noted that Asean chair Malaysia instead gave a more muted statement seeking the early finalisation of a code of conduct with legal force to tackle disputes over territories with competing claims by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“Malaysia's diplomatic performance in the wake of that conference appeared to some observers as revealing the country's vulnerability as a small export-oriented economy hoping for investment from bigger trading partners,” the publication said.

In giving further examples, it also noted that Malaysia’s defence minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had discussed “military cooperation” with China’s defence minister Chang Wanquan on November 5, while also visiting a US aircraft carrier near Sabah on the invitation of US defense secretary Ashton Carter on the same day.

On October 12, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) said it expects total trade between Malaysia and China to increase to US$110 billion (RM455.4 billion) this year from last year’s US$102 billion, with for both countries committing to up their two-way trade to US$160 billion by 2017.

Total trade between Malaysia and US in 2013 is said to be US$40.3 billion, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.