Jakarta – Indonesia has elected to enter into military cooperation with Russia and China. According to Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono, both China and Russia had offered.
"The president said that a meeting to explore technical support under military cooperation agreements with Russia and China will be convened shortly," said Juwono, after the opening of Indo Defence Expo and Forum-2004 at the Jakarta Fair Ground in Kemayoran on Wednesday (24 November).
The defence minister said that both of these countries had actively approached Indonesia with regard to entering into military cooperation.
"This is not being done by other countries. Some countries were still sounding out the possibility though". Outside of Russia and China, Indonesia has not made any agreements on military hardware with any other countries despite the large number of countries participating in the exhibition.
The option to progress military cooperation with Russia and China was being taken up for various reasons. The US was still refusing to lift its weapons embargo. The conditions set by the US, said the Defence Minister, were unacceptable to Indonesia.
However, Juwono said that Indonesia was still considering the importance of military cooperation with the US in terms of technology for the Air Force (AU) and the Navy (AL). Therefore, although the US domestic political situation was hostile, the government would continue to try and convince Washington that equipment assistance for TNI [Indonesian National Military Forces] was important. "Assistance to acquire equipment will actually save lives and strengthen human rights. If TNI is not given satisfactory equipment and hardware, there will be more human rights violations going on," he said.
Juwono assured that the human rights violations that occurred in Indonesia were not conducted using weapons obtained from the US. Ironically, some people in the international community linked US weapons to cases of human rights violations.
With academics
Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [SBY] called on the Defence Department, TNI and police to cooperate with academics and the industrial sector to improve weapons technology. "I am asking the Defence Department, TNI and the police, as our strategy and policy makers, to continue to cooperate with academia and industry through their research and development centres.
With such pillars of support, we can improve our technological capacity significantly in the years to come," said the president when opening the Defence and Security Industry Exhibition, yesterday.
Besides cooperation in the military field, the president added that the Defence Department, TNI and police, could cooperate in research and development and ultimately the transfer of technology. "We certainly still need the technical support from military cooperation but I want the cooperation with these countries in years to come to also encompass research and development and later on the transfer of technology".
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated that he was proud of the domestic defence industry because it had succeeded in improving the quality of its products. "Keep up the good work, continue to do some highly innovative research and development," he said.
The Indo Defence Expo and Forum-2004 is running from Wednesday until Saturday at the Jakarta Fair Ground in Kemayoran. The exhibition, which was opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was designed as medium for exchanging information and knowledge about current defence systems and technology.
Over 250 companies from 24 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, France and Canada, are participating in the Expo.