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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
I would like to begin our meeting today with a few words about the visit to Malaysia. Here is why. As you know, we signed a contract there – a good contract for us – to deliver fighter planes to Malaysia.
The matter is not just the size of the contract, though it is a big contract – almost $1 billion. The matter is that this contract gives us a new platform from which we can launch ourselves into the Asian market. We now need to build on this result. I therefore ask the Government, especially those of you responsible for the military-industrial complex, to pay attention to the conditions of this contract and to the agreements we reached outside the contract’s framework.
What these agreements are about is that we are to create a centre in Malaysia to service our planes, ensure timely and reliable supply of spare parts and train local specialists. This would enable us to cement our foothold in this market and promote our products.
We all understand that this is not just a question of money. This is a question of supporting our military-industrial complex in order to provide our own armed forces with modern weapons.
August 11, 2003, The Kremlin, Moscow