June 6, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

KUALA LUMPUR, June 5: Malaysia signed a deal on Wednesday to buy its first submarines to patrol its vast coastline but officials were quick to deny that the country was in an arms race with neighbouring Singapore.

They said the three French submarines worth up to 1.04 billion euros ($1.1 billion) will be used to police the 4,490-km (2,806-miles) long coastline susceptible to threats of piracy and illegal migration.

“We’ve such a large body of water to police. We need submarines,” Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak told reporters.

“Don’t raise this spectre that we’re starting an arms race or competing with anyone,” he said when asked if Malaysia was building a more superior weapons line-up than Singapore.

“Singapore has got submarines, fighter aircraft, Apache helicopters and nobody makes a big fuss about it,” Najib said. “Why is it when Malaysia buys, everyone makes such a big fuss?”

This year alone, Malaysia has committed to buy Polish tanks and Pakistani anti-tank rockets and is also considering new FA-18 Super Hornets or Russian Sukhoi SU-30 combat aircraft.

Defence analysts say Malaysia is trying to rival Singapore’s arsenal but local officials deny that, saying Kuala Lumpur’s defence expenditure is less than 2.5 percent of gross national product compared to Singapore’s 4.9 percent.

Under Wednesday’s deal, French warship builder DCN will supply Malaysia two of the new-generation, Scorpene SSK-class submarines and an overhauled Agosta 70 submarine.—Reuters