The Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement (AMDA) was set up on 19 September 1957 to provide a security umbrella for the newly independent

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

. AMDA was a bilateral defence agreement between the United Kingdom and the

Federation of Malaya The Federation of Malaya ( ms, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya comprising eleven states (nine Malay states and two of the British Empire, British Straits Settlements, P ...

, which also committed

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and New Zealand to assist Britain in the defence of Malaysia. This agreement was used to justify Australian and New Zealand involvement in the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

and the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation. The agreement was formally signed by the British and Malayan Governments on 12 October 1957. When Malaysia was created in 1963, AMDA was renamed the Anglo-Malaysian Defence Agreement and continued to provide some measure of security to the new federation. AMDA was later replaced with the FPDA.

Notes and references

Military history of Malaysia 1957 in Malaya Treaties of the Federation of Malaya Bilateral treaties of the United Kingdom Treaties concluded in 1957 Malaysia–United Kingdom relations Cold War treaties {{SEAsia-hist-stub