THE cabinet will have to discuss Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s suggestion that the country buy fighter jets from China instead of Europe to protest against the West’s anti-palm oil campaign.

Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said this is because the matter has to do with the European Union’s move to curb the use of palm oil, a key Malaysian commodity.

The EU has proposed phasing out the use of palm oil in biofuels, arguing that the cultivation of oil palm leads to deforestation.

Malaysia is the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil, after Indonesia.

“We import a lot of goods from EU countries. If their campaign against palm oil continues, we will have to discuss whether we will still continue to import from the EU when they are not reciprocating our goodwill,” Mohamad told reporters at the Defence and Transport Ministries‘ high tea with the media at Resort World Langkawi, to mark the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) 2019.

“We import so much, especially from France. But we see the EU campaign against palm oil is being headed by France.

“We hope there will be further negotiations on the matter by the relevant ministers, who are working very hard to fix the damaged reputation of palm oil.”

He was asked to comment on the prime minister’s proposal that Malaysia shop elsewhere for fighter jets to upgrade its ageing air force fleet of Russian MiG-29 fighters.

There were plans for Malaysia to buy France’s Rafale jets or the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Earlier today, Dr Mahathir said he has written to the EU over the bloc’s anti-palm oil campaign, and clarified that his earlier remarks were just a suggestion.

Meanwhile, Mohamad said Malaysians and southern Thailand residents are welcome to visit LIMA, which will officially begin tomorrow and go on till Saturday.

Thirty-two countries, and 206 local and 200 international exhibitors – Turkey being the largest – are participating in the biannual event. – March 25, 2019.