President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Friday congratulated newly sworn-in Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The Office of the Press Secretary said the President expressed his hope to work with the new Malaysian leader particularly as the Southeast Asian region tackles various challenges.

"I just wanted to be — to immediately — to be one of the first to congratulate you because I'm very happy to hear the news. I was very happy to hear the news and I wanted to congratulate you immediately myself," Marcos said during the telephone conversation. "I am sure this will make Malaysia and the Philippines even closer because we will be in touch with one another."

On his Twitter account, Anwar thanked the Philippine leader for the call, saying: "As founding fathers of ASEAN, our two nations have always enjoyed strong cooperation in bilateral, regional, and multilateral forums."

According to OPS, Anwar told Marcos that Malaysia wants the Philippines' commitment to collaboration in different areas such as trade and investment considering the two nations' great traditions in the past.

Marcos, in response, said a strong partnership between the Philippines and Malaysia is important because of all the problems that the two nations are facing.

"We have to really work together, otherwise, we will not able to get over this crisis of the inflation, of the agricultural commodities, all of that. I saw your statement that the economy will be your first priority. And I found myself in the same position. So we can — I think we can help each other with Malaysia and the Philippines," Marcos said.

The President also told the Malaysian prime minister that they have some commonality: They both waited for a very, very long time to get into the position.

Anwar admitted that his social media team learned from Marcos's expertise and strategy.

The new Malaysian leader was sworn in as the Southeast Asian nation's prime minister on Thursday, vowing to fight corruption and revive the Malaysian economy.

Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the king of Malaysia, named Anwar as the Southeast Asian nation's 10th leader after seeing him clenching the majority support.

Ibrahim was sworn in on 24 November at the National Palace in the nation's capital before Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah following a five-day political impasse.

According to local reports, no party was able to secure a majority to form a parliament for the first time since the nation declared independence in 1957.