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.