Malaysia strongly opposes plan to establish US bases
IRNA
Kuala Lumpur, May 31, IRNA -- Malaysia will strongly oppose the
suggestion that US bases be established in the country, Defense
Minister Najib Tun Razak said.
"This is a matter of pride and sovereignty...And there is no need
for such suggestions to be considered as we have an able and capable
defense force," was Najib's comment on wire reports quoting the Los
Angeles Times on Friday which said that the Pentagon was planning a
realignment of troops in Asia.
This may include moving US Marines out of Japan and establishing
a network of small bases in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia where
the US has never had a permanent military presence.
"We will not agree to this...but it does not mean we (US and
Malaysia) cannot further develop bilateral defense relations outside
this ambit.
"Similar to the Five-Power Defense Arrangement, we can also
continue having exercises with our US counterparts," he said in an
interview with the local newspaper, the New Straits Times, which was
published on Saturday.
Najib further said that it would be premature to speculate on the
issue as it was only brought to his attention following the media
report.
In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard denied reports that
Washington had approached Canberra to allow up to 15,000 marines to
be based in Australia as part of a realignment of US forces in the
Asia Pacific after Sept 11.
Reuters reported that Howard, a staunch US ally who sent a
2,000-strong force to fight alongside the US in the Iraq war,
dismissed the reports.
"It hasn't been raised with me and it hasn't been raised with
the the Defense Minister," Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
"I don't give advance gratuitous blank cheque comments about the
stationing of troops in this country to anybody. If the Americans had
a proposition, they would need to put it in the proper fashion and we
would need to consider it."
In Singapore, Deputy US Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said
speculation that the US was considering moving troops from the
Japanese island of Okinawa to Australia was wrong, but Washington was
looking at how its forces were positioned in the region.
"There are things in that story including the speculation that we
might take our marines out of Okinawa and move them into Australia,
that simply has no foundation," he said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the International Institute
for Strategic Studies' second Asia Security Conference in Singapore.
He said the US administration was taking a fundamental look at
its military positions worldwide.
BN/LS/AR
End
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