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| P-8A Poseidon (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Shannon Tiezzi
Adm. Jonathan Greenert indicated that Malaysia offered to host U.S. spy planes.
Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the U.S. chief of naval operations, told a Washington DC audience last week that Malaysia had offered to let the U.S. use one of its bases for maritime surveillance flights over the South China Sea. China has loudly protested U.S. surveillance operations near the Chinese coasts, particularly near Hainan Island, the site of a nuclear submarine base.
In remarks given September 8 (PDF) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Greenert said that “recently the Malaysians have offered us to fly detachments of P-8s out of … East Malaysia.” Greenert added that “you can see the closeness for the South China Sea,” implying that the P-8 aircraft would be used for surveillance over that disputed maritime region.
Since then, the U.S. government has further clarified Greenert’s remarks. On Friday, a Navy spokesman, Captain Danny Hernandez, emphasized that Greenert’s comments did not mean the U.S. had concrete plans to conduct surveillance flights out of Malaysia. Rather, Greenert was “discussing was nurturing future opportunities, like responding to emerging issues in the region, which was done with MH370 search operations,” Hernandez told Reuters. During the search efforts for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysia allowed the U.S. Navy to operate P-8 surveillance flights from Malyasian bases; this may have been what Greenert was referring to, rather than a new offer for surveillance flights over the South China Sea. The U.S. State Department also clarified on Friday that the U.S. has “no plans for a permanent [military] presence in Malaysia.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat