[5] The growth of the China trade in British ships increased the East India Company’s (EIC) desire for bases in the region.

[8] In 1795, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British with the consent of the Netherlands occupied Dutch Malacca to forestall possible French interest in the area.

[9][10] In 1824 British hegemony in Malaya was formalised by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, which divided the Malay Archipelago between Britain and the Netherlands.

[18][19] In 1944, the British drew up plans for a Malayan Union, which would unite the Federated and Unfederated Malay States (except for Singapore), into a single Crown colony, with a view towards independence.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah paid a state visit to the United Kingdom in July 1974.

[25] The next Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak paid a state visit to the United Kingdom in November 1993.

[26] David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom visited Malaysia in the first half of 2012 as part of his Asia tour.

[27] On 2 November 2017, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, made an official visit to Malaysia to commemorate the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries.

[32] In April 2017, United Kingdom Secretary of International Trade Dr Liam Fox said their country affirmed its commitment to increase trade and investment as part of a determined effort to reach out to its trading partners and to reassure that the United Kingdom was open for business beyond Brexit after the former triggered article 50 for the secession from the EU while acknowledging the massive investments by Malaysian companies in the country such as in the Battersea Power Station.

Malaysia is the second-largest host country/region for UK TNE, (and the largest host country if distance-learning and Oxford Brookes' partnership with ACCA are excluded) , although over the past few years there has been a decrease in TNE student numbers due to consolidation of the existing offer in the context of an increasingly competitive market, a developing local higher education sector and changes in local regulations.