VLADIVOSTOK: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told Sputnik news agency in an interview that he did not like military drills in the country’s waters, qualifying them as provocative and stressing the need to scale down exercises for the sake of global peace.
“On the whole, we are not very keen on exercises. They are usually very provocative. We have recently participated (in the joint exercise) with the Asean group, with the US, but I have made my views known about this. I don’t like military drills in our waters because it tends to provoke other countries. I think we should scale down military activities if you want to have peace,“ said Mahathir on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) when asked whether the country had plans to hold any new joint drills.
The prime minister has previously slammed the Asean-US Maritime Exercise, which started on Sept 2, as meaningless, expressing concerns that it could make China feel threatened and therefore boost its naval forces. He also said that the United States should hold such drills on its own territory.
Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok is hosting the fifth edition of the EEF from September 4-6. The Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is an official media partner of the event. — Bernama
