Malik is also well known for presenting the USSR's justifications for the occupation of Czechoslovakia at the Security Council in August 1968. He vetoed the two resolutions regarding the invasion (resolution requesting the liberation of the arrested Czechoslovak politicians and the removal of the communist armies from Czechoslovakia and the resolution requiring the selection of Special Envoy to Czechoslovakia).
From 1967 to 1971 he was the head of the Africa department of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this time he initiated the covert operation Bukran, which established a spy network in several African countries.[citation needed]