Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) will recruit youths living along the Indonesia and Malaysia borders as non-commissioned officers to safeguard national interests, a military officer said Friday.

"The plan to recruit local youths is part of a policy to develop a defense force along the Indonesia-Malaysia borders in Kalimantan," Chief of the Tanjung Pura Regional Military Command Maj. Gen. George Robert Situmeang told Antara. The command overseas the four provinces of Kalimantan.

"We will set up two brigades and two battalions in West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan. We prefer local youths to serve at the borders as servicemen from other regions had difficulty being posted to border regions such as Putusibau for prolonged periods of time," he said.

"The plan to recruit local youths is also designed to balance the Malaysian military's plan to form a border brigade," he added He said Malaysia was planning to form a border brigade consisting of 40,000 local people and youths by 2010.