Novan Iman Santosa, Jakarta – Representatives from Singaporean and Indonesian defense industries had their first meeting during a workshop on Thursday, exploring ways to collaborate among themselves amid an increasingly complex security landscape in the Indo-Pacific region and the growing threats in the cyber domain.
The workshop was organized by defense and security solutions firm PT Mirage Defence Indonesia in cooperation with Singaporean defense giant ST Engineering and Indonesian defense consortium DEFEND ID.
"Intensifying major power competition, tensions in the South China Sea, maritime security challenges around the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, as well as the growing dimension of cyber threats, require countries in this region to continuously strengthen their defense capabilities and national resilience," the Indonesian Defense Ministry's director for defense technology potential, Air Cdre. Dedy Laksmono, told workshop participants in his opening speech.
"In this context, Indonesia sees defense cooperation not merely as government-to-government interaction, but also as a strategic partnership between defense industries."
Dedy said that defense relations between Indonesia and Singapore are already built on solid foundations, pointing to the signing of the Defense Cooperation Agreement in 2022.
"Singapore has shown impressive progress in developing a highly integrated and technology-driven defense industrial ecosystem," he said.
"ST Engineering is a clear example of how a national company can evolve into a globally competitive and innovative industry leader."
Dedy said both ST Engineering and DEFEND ID should hold a cooperation with substantial strategic values. He proposed that both firms take various practical forms, such as joint ventures and joint production, technology transfer and human resource development, joint research and development initiatives, maintenance, repair and overhaul and the development of digital systems, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities.
Representing Singapore was ST Engineering vice president for international business, defense and public security, Brig. Gen. (ret) Chua Jin Kiat, who said that in addition to non-traditional security threats, both countries are facing challenges such as maritime security, a common ground for both Indonesia and Singapore to strengthen their defense posture through strategic collaboration.
"For Singapore, defense industry cooperation with Indonesia provides complementary capacities in facing reciprocal security needs in the Malacca Strait and South China Sea. Singapore is not as big as Indonesia and in times of crisis, it is inevitable for it to require support from its neighbors, particularly Indonesia," he said.
Chua said that strategic collaboration could only be fruitful and sustainable if it is implemented at all levels; beyond political commitment at government-to-government and military-to-military levels to the industrial level involving businesses.
He said that both companies have an important role as a strategic partner to their own government and Defense Ministry.
"In this light, it was an honor for STE to be able to support Indonesia, specifically the Defense Ministry and DEFEND ID, to achieve the goals of becoming part of the global supply chain," he said.
"We recognize that our goals are remarkably parallel. While ST Engineering has evolved into a global technology, defense and engineering group, our roots remain firmly planted in supporting national sovereignty through high-tech innovation."
Chua said that the Singaporean side respects Indonesia's mandatory CTLCO (counter-trade, local content and offset) requirements as an integral part in revitalizing the national defense technological and industrial base (DTIB), and therefore has come with programs in four domains (land, maritime, aerospace and communication) that they hope could be explored in strategic collaboration.
Representatives from DEFEND ID and ST Engineering took turns presenting each of the company's capabilities in land, maritime and air systems as well as the digital and cyber domains.
The workshop ended with a session of business-to-business meetings for each company's subsidiaries or units to align their capabilities and interests more closely. While both companies have similar capabilities in each of their segments, their structures vary differently.
ST Engineering, a unit of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund (SWF) Temasek, is grouped under the so-called clusters, such as Commercial Aerospace, Smart City, Defense, Public Security, Digital Tech and Cybersecurity.
Meanwhile, DEFEND ID consists of five individual companies with electronic systems maker PT LEN Industri serving as the parent company. Other companies are aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia, land systems and weapons maker PT Pindad, shipyard PT PAL Indonesia and explosives maker PT Dahana.
Source: https://asianews.network/singaporean-indonesian-defence-firms-explore-collaborations