France commends Malaysian approach
BY ADRIAN DAVID - 5 NOVEMBER 2014 @ 8:18 AM



KUALA LUMPUR: FRANCE is supportive of Malaysia’s stand to engage in dialogues and non-confrontational means to settle disputes in the South China Sea with China.

At the same time, France welcomes Malaysia’s approach towards thwarting the advances of terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS) who are out to destabilise the world.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday his country understood the temptation of China to expand its naval prowess in the South China Sea in view of its claims over territories there.

“At the same time, we also understand the sentiments of stakeholders in the region who are acting within the laws. We ourselves are monitoring the situation from our Pacific bases in New Caledonia and Polynesia.

“Malaysia, for one, is bent on upgrading its deterrence to safeguard its sovereignty and assets, while enhancing maritime security.”

On the IS threat, Le Drian said, like Malaysia, France was committed to combating extremists attempting to expand their influence outside of the Middle East from its base in Syria.

“IS is capable of launching a massive and destructive war as they have significant military assets. They are recruiting terrorists worldwide and this is a worrying thing.”

Le Drian said that France was against extremism and terrorism and was collaborating with its partners like Malaysia, which is chairman of Asean, as well as a UN Security Council member.

“We share a common approach, exchange analysis on threats and risks, complement each other in terms of intelligence, security and defence cooperation.

“We have an annual bilateral platform at the ministerial level to discuss such issues,” he said, referring to next month’s high level committee meeting for defence in Paris to be co-chaired by him and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

Le Drian said that France had a long-standing defence cooperation with Malaysia leading to the supply of Scorpene submarines, EC725 helicopters, Airbus A400M transport aircraft, armaments, and command and control systems.

France is bidding to supply the Rafale multi-role combat aircraft for the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s modernisation programme.

http://www.nst.com.my/node/49738

Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian boasts the advantages of Rafale in Malaysia

MC with agencies | 04/11/2014, 3:42 p.m



The Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the sale of Rafale fighter jets during a visit to Malaysia. The Malaysian Air Force wants to acquire 18 combat aircraft.

The Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the sale of Rafale fighter jets to Malaysia in talks with senior politicians in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The issue was "raised" , said Jean-Yves Le Drian reporters in response to a question about the sale of Rafale, at the end of talks with senior Malaysian officials. Malaysia plans to acquire 18 combat aircraft in the MRCA program to replace Mig-29, Malaysians were disappointed by the lack of maintenance reliability.

"We believe that the Rafale is a great plane, we are quite willing to have a partnership with Malaysia in this regard" , he has said after meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Minister Defense Hishammuddin Hussein, without going into details. The French minister said that some discussions had to be "confidential "and that the choice belonged to Malaysia.

Malaysian fleet renewal

This country needs to renew its fleet of MiG in the coming years and the French firm Dassault is in the running. France and Malaysia have a close defense partnership of France and is the leading supplier of military equipment (helicopters, submarines, etc.) of the country of Southeast Asia. During a visit to France last year, Najib Razak had remained evasive on the possibility for the country to buy Rafale, while outlining the financial constraints of Malaysia.

The Rafale could be assembled in Malaysia if he carried the competition to equip the Malaysian air force, announced in March 2013 the CEO of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier. In this market, estimated at 3 billion euros, the Rafale is competing against the Eurofighter Typhoon built by the Eurofighter consortium (consisting of BAE Systems, the European group EADS and Finmeccanica of Italy), the Boeing F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" Block 2, the Saab JAS 39E / F "Gripen NG" the Swedish Saab and finally the Sukhoi Su-30MKM.

http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-...-malaisie.html