Malaysia to buy first submarines

Malaysia to buy first submarines

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysia said on Sunday it would go ahead with plans to buy its first submarines in a move diplomats said could unsettle its Southeast Asian neighbors and lead to an arms race in the region.

Defense minister Najib Razak said the submarines, first proposed a decade ago, were necessary to help boost the country's defense capabilities, the national Bernama news agency said.

The armed forces would acquire high technology and sophisticated weaponry to "deter threats from external elements", Bernama said. It was not clear from which country the submarines were to be bought.

Diplomats say the Malaysian move could lead to an arms race in the region. An Asian diplomat said the move seemed to be in direct response to neighboring Singapore's purchase of four second-hand Sjoormen-class submarines from Sweden.

Malaysia, along with Brunei, China, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, is locked in a territorial dispute over the Spratlys, a cluster of potentially oil-rich isles, reefs and shoals in the South China Sea.