Putin eyes more Asian marts after Malaysia arms deal
Putin eyes more Asian marts after Malaysia arms deal
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday wrapped up a US$900 million deal to sell warplanes to Malaysia and sets his sights on more sales in the region.
"With the delivery of the Sukhoi, hopefully it will promote Russian aviation technology to Southeast Asia," Putin said at the launch of the Malaysia-Russia Business Council here.
The centerpiece of Putin's first visit to this mainly Muslim nation is the signing of an agreement to supply 18 Sukhoi Su-30MK fighter jets to the Royal Malaysian Air Force.
The combat aircraft forms part of a major arms procurement spree by Malaysia which includes French submarines, British and Russian missile systems and Polish attack tanks.
The squadron of Sukhoi will join Russian-made MiG-29Ns, U.S.- made FA-18/Ds and British-made Hawks in Malaysia's combat aircraft fleet, officials said.
Analysts in Moscow had predicted that Putin would use the trip to Malaysia, the first by a Russian president, to boost his country's position in the Asian arms market.
Under fire for its nuclear cooperation with Iran, Russia is not keen to further rile the United States by increasing its arms sales to the Islamic regime and is instead seeking alternate customers, they said.
The Sukhoi deal is a sign that Russia is turning back to Asia after the relationship that flourished with the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks cooled over the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said analyst Viktor Kremenyuk of the USA-Canada Institute in Moscow.
Malaysia is also a strong critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the issue was raised obliquely at a question and answer session after Putin's address to several hundred businessmen at an hotel in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
In reply to a question on the "unilateral trend" in world affairs, Putin said through an interpreter: "In our view, a multipolar world will serve as a basis where the rule of law triumphs and the practice of leading international organizations is complied with."
The situation in Iraq came up again in talks between Putin and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad later in the day, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.
He said the two leaders agreed that "the preemptive invasion may not have been the most appropriate action."
"Russia and Malaysia agreed that in order for other members of the international community to be able to be involved constructively and actively in Iraq the matter should be brought back to the United Nations for a UN force to be sent there to replace the coalition force," Syed Hamid said.
"The government of Iraq should be under the Iraqis' control. At present it is a very unsatisfactory situation."
Meanwhile in Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos said the Malaysian cosmonaut would visit the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz craft after undergoing more than 12 months of training, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Malaysia has not selected its space candidate or decided whether that person would be a flight engineer or a researcher, Sergei Gorbunov was cited as saying.
Putin is the third leader from major countries opposed to the Iraq war -- the so-called "coalition of the unwilling" -- to travel to Malaysia in recent months.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited in May and was followed by French President Jacques Chirac in July. None of the three countries had previously sent their leaders to this nation of some 23 million people, which is seen as among the world's most developed Muslim states.
Following a state banquet, the Russian president was scheduled to leave for Uzbekistan shortly after midnight.