Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has denied that US fighters have been given permission to operate from air bases in East Malaysia.
 
"That is not true," he said when asked at a press conference today after returning from a working trip to Kiev, Moscow, and The Hague.
 
Earlier, the Sea Power Magazine quoted US Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan W Greenert saying that Malaysia has offered to host US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an unnamed East Malaysia air base.
 
“Recently, the Malaysians have offered us to fly detachments of P-8s out of East Malaysia.
 
“You can see the closeness to the South China Sea. So we have opportunities and we ought to continue to nurture them,” Greenert was quoted as saying in a Sept 8 article.

Sea Power Magazine is the official publication of the Navy League of the United States.
 
The Poseidon is a maritime patrol aircraft, whereas the question posed to Hishammuddin (above) today was whether US fighters had been allowed to be based in Malaysia.
 
The aircraft had previously been used in the search for the missing flight MH370, as well as to patrol international waters off the coast of China.

Issue of sovereignty
 
NGO Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) had issued a statement earlier today urging Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (below) to give an explanation on Greenert’s statement.
 
"SAMM views this as an issue of sovereignty. As a member nation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), we should not be aligned to any major power especially on military affairs. What more in the ongoing tensions between the US, China and Russia.
 
"Not only that, allowing an aircraft that have strong surveillance capabilities also gives opportunities to the 'world police' to spy on Malaysia’s security and sovereignty more directly," said SAMM coordinator Roslee Mohd Sharif.
 
Last August, the US had accused China of intercepting a Poseidon aircraft while on patrol in international waters in the South China Sea.
 
It claimed that the Chinese fighter was performing acrobatic manoeuvres dangerously close to the patrol craft, and denounced the action as unprofessional and unsafe.
 
The US had lodged a formal complaint to the communist state over the incident, while China claims that the jet had kept a safe distance from the US aircraft.

Military exercise condemned

Hishammuddin's comments come as the Royal Malaysian Armed Forces and the US Army Pacific announced their participation in the Keris Strike 2014 military exercise in and around Kota Bharu from Sept 13-26.

Kuala Nerus MP Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali (left) condemned a joint US-Malaysia annual military exercise that is slated to be held in Kota Bharu tomorrow.

He said although the 18th Keris Strike exercise is supposed to be focused on disaster relief, consideration should be to political developments involving Muslims abroad.

“For example, the firm support that US President Barrack Obama has given to Israel, which continues to batter Muslims in Palestine last July…

“Malaysia should be stern in voicing the wishes of Muslims worldwide on the US in this matter,” the PAS MP said in a statement.
 
On another matter, Hishammuddin said Malaysia is working to secure safe passage into the MH17 crash site in Ukraine before winter sets in to complicate matters.
 
"I don’t deny that the situation is complicated, but we have returned with high hopes for our goal of ensuring that all interested parties - whether Ukraine, Russia, the Netherlands or Australia - can be on the same page," he said.

This is important to recover the remains of any MH17 victims still at the crash side, and to retrieve aircraft wreckage for forensic analysis.