Since its independence in 1957, the foreign policy of Malaya/Malaysia has been going through several stages of changes and re-orientations.

From 1957 to early 1970, the administration of the first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman was strongly anti-Communist and pro-Western as the West was itself united in its global containment of the former Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. Then, the combination of the Cold War with the Afro-Asian decolonisation process defined the international environment where foreign policy choices were made.

It was anchored on the Anglo-Malayan/Malaysian Defence Agreement (AMDA) which allowed British Commonwealth troops to be stationed within the Malayan/Malaysian territory, although Malaya/Malaysia refused to join the US-sponsored Southeast Asian Treaty Organisation (Seato).