OREANDA-NEWS. November 17, 2011. Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi visited Irkutsk Aviation Plant – a subsidiary of JSC IRKUT Corporation. President of JSC IRKUT Corporation Alexey Fedorov represented to his high-ranking guest main workshops of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant where Su-30MK and Yak-130 fighters, as well as components for Airbus in frames of international industrial cooperation program are being produced.

“The goal of my visit to Irkutsk is to see for myself where a multi-role fighter Su-30MK is being produced for the Royal Malaysian Air Force. I am very impressed and absolutely convinced that the future of the aircraft is very bright. We are also discussing a probable development of future programs and the Malaysian companies are ready to cooperate with IRKUT in this sphere”, noted the minister.

In frames of cooperation with the Royal Malaysian Air Force IRKUT Corporation delivered 18 Su-30MK fighters (unofficially named Su-30MKM - multi-role, commercial, Malaysian) from 2007 to 2009.

“Malaysia is not only a customer it is the key partner for us. We would like to secure a good partnership with the Malaysian aviation industry”, said Alexey Fedorov.

Besides Su-30MKM the countries also discussed the cooperation on the MS-21 project (a modern civil short/mid range airliner which is planned to be produced at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant). First deliveries of the airliner to Malaysia are planned for 2017. Also the Malaysian Defense Minister expressed his interest in Yak-130 project and didn’t rule out the possibility of cooperation in that sphere.