Russia has signed a preliminary agreement to sell $500 million worth of military aircraft to Thailand in what would be the first such deal with the traditional U.S. arms client.

"We signed a memorandum for 12 Sukhoi-30MKMs during President Vladimir Putin's visit [last week] to Malaysia," a senior official at Irkut, the privately controlled maker of the Sukhoi fighter, said Friday. Putin was in Malaysia for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Thailand originally agreed to buy the jets last year but put off the deal after a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people hit the region last December.

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