KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said that China would respect Malaysia’s protest against the 16 military aircrafts that were reported to be flying near Malaysian national airspace.

During a virtual press conference today, Dr Mahathir said that as far as he is aware, the Malaysian government has contacted the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia to discuss the matter.

"What they tell the ambassador I don’t know, because I’m not in the government. But I think China will respect Malaysia’s stand on this issue, because we always know we are not going to unnecessarily antagonise each other,” he said.

The former prime minister and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air chairman, however admonished the government for allowing an Israeli aircraft — a commercial flight carrying civilians from the Maldives to Singapore — to pass over Malaysian airspace.

"In my opinion the government should not have allowed the Israeli aircraft to fly over Malaysian airspace, even if they have to go to Singapore.

"They can go outside Malaysian airspace. But I think our government is not conscious of the feelings of the people in the country

"People in the country do not want to see Israeli planes flying over Malaysian air,” he said.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force made the announcement that it had detected the "suspicious” activity of the Chinese aircraft on Tuesday. A day later, Beijing said the occurrence was routine flight training and did not target any country.

The Israeli aircraft was detected on Saturday, and the Ministry of Transport has since stated there were no abnormal flight patterns and the flight followed the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organisation — which Malaysia is part of.