Malaysia's Parliament Speaker Dato Johari bin Abdul praised President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him the "champion of Muslims."

"Erdoğan is a person we also admire enviously and we can say that he is the champion of Muslims," Abdul said at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mustafa Şentop in Algeria.

Şentop and Abdul met on the sidelines of the 17th session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) in Algeria, where they discussed enhancing cooperation between the two parliaments.

Stressing the goal of boosting bilateral trade with Malaysia, which has been upgraded to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership level, Sentop told his counterpart that the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the group behind the July 15, 2016, defeated coup in Türkiye, poses a national security risk to the countries in which it operates.

Şentop said FETÖ spreads its activities by destabilizing countries and can hide behind structures such as educational institutions and NGOs.

Stressing his satisfaction with Malaysia's cooperation in the fight against FETÖ, Şentop also conveyed his expectation for a solution for FETÖ-affiliated schools that are still active in Malaysia.

For his part, Abdul said that they understand the FETÖ structure and support Türkiye on this issue.

Separately, Sentop held a closed-door meeting with Algerian National Assembly Speaker Salah Goudjil.

"In our meeting, where we discussed relations between our parliaments, we had the opportunity to evaluate the common problems of the Islamic world, and the PUIC meeting," Şentop said on Twitter.