Morgan Mellish, Jakarta – Companies from 30 countries have been in Jakarta trying to sell their weaponry.
There were Iranians selling high explosives, Koreans selling tanks, Indians selling cruise missiles and Russians selling virtually everything. Everyone, it seemed, was in Jakarta last week trying to sell arms to the Indonesian military.
"They are interested in everything," says Nikolai Dimidiuk, retired colonel-general and director of special projects for the huge Russian state-owned arms dealer Rosoboronexport. "Submarines, ships, Sukhoi aircraft, infantry vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, small arms and ammunition."
The world's arms dealers were in Indonesia's capital for the second international defence expo organised by the developing nation's armed forces. More than 400 companies from 30 countries took part and you could buy anything from small-arms ammunition right up to warships.
The only notable absence was the United States. Despite recently lifting an arms embargo, the US – the world's largest producer and exporter – had only a small presence and most of its firms, such as Honeywell, were selling less provocative products such as bullet-proof vests.
Bob Lowry, an expert on the Indonesian military and a former military attache to Jakarta, says the US still wanted to keep a low profile because of anti-American sentiment.
"What they are looking for is not to expose themselves to public demonstrations or issues being raised in parliament," he says. "In the meantime, they've opened up their military training and education systems to Indonesians again so they are hoping, over the years, to re-establish the sort of relationship they used to have."
In the past, Indonesia relied heavily on US weaponry and military assistance. However, it turned to Russia and other eastern European nations for arms procurements after the US imposed a military embargo following a massacre in East Timor in 1992. The embargo was lifted last year.
The Russians, who have a permanent office in Jakarta, had by far the largest presence, handing out their catalogue on disk, complete with stirring music and images of tanks firing.
"We are not afraid if the United States are here now because we have very good armaments," Dimidiuk said through an interpreter. "We are ready to challenge the United States."
The Indonesian director-general for defence planning, Slamet Prihatino, a vice-air marshall, says his country is considering buying Brahmos missiles from India, which can be fired from bombers, submarines and land vehicles and have a range of 290 kilometres.
Indonesia also plans to buy more Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia. It has, in recent years, bought four of these jets, as well as Russian helicopters, armoured personnel carriers and small arms.
Despite the activity at the expo, which was opened by the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, analysts say the budget for Indonesia's military, known as the TNI, remains relatively small.
"Indonesia has about the smallest per capita defence budget out of most of the ASEAN countries," the Australian Defence Association's Neil James says.
"No thinking Australian is terrified of the TNI. Are they capable of invading Australia? The simple answer is no. They're not a threat to us. If there's ever a war sufficiently serious, they're going to be on our side, not against us."
One Australian company at the expo was South Australian radio maker Codan. Regional sales manager Grant Bonner says: "Codan is entering into the military [market] and Indonesia and this is good exposure. I would have thought there'd be more Australian companies here."
One topic nobody wanted to talk about on the record was corruption, which has dogged Indonesia's arms procurement system for many years.