Indonesia's defence spending will once again top that for all government
agencies, spiking to a record 77.7 trillion rupiah (US$8 billion) next year.
The new budget is 6.6 per cent
higher than this year's and comes as Southeast Asia's largest country seeks to
leverage its growing economy to overhaul its ageing military hardware.
But unlike some of its neighbours
whose beefing up of their armies comes amid growing wariness of China's
military build-up, Jakarta's plans involve jointly producing C-705 anti- ship
missiles with Beijing.
The move has raised eyebrows, but
officials say it is all about cooperating with a range of countries so that the
Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), which have 400,000 active-duty soldiers, get the
best deal for weapons and defence systems, and the domestic defence industry
gets a boost.
"This is part of our effort
to achieve a minimum essential force by 2024," Defence Ministry spokesman
Hartind Asrin told The Straits Times yesterday, using a term that refers to the
bare minimum needed to safeguard Indonesia's borders and maintain a professional
and capable military.
Brigadier-General Hartind said
the two sides aim to agree on quantity and specifications by the year end, so
that a deal to develop the missiles here can be inked next March. The two sides
had discussed the deal at the first Indonesia-China defence industry
cooperation meeting here last month.
The naval missiles, which have a
range of 135km, have been test- fired in the Sunda Strait.
He stressed that the plans are
unrelated to and unaffected by rising tensions in the South China Sea over
territories claimed by China and four Asean states.
However, Indonesia's closer
cooperation with China has been followed by an offer of further cooperation
from the US. Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said last week the US had
offered additional F-16 fighter jets on top of the 24 the TNI will soon receive
on a grant agreed on late last year.
The latest offer from Washington
comes amid closer military ties between Jakarta and Beijing.
Last month, Indonesian special
forces troops held a joint exercise with their Chinese counterparts in
Shandong, and China has offered to train Indonesian air force pilots using a
Sukhoi simulator.
Both foreign ministers also
agreed to boost defence ties when they met here earlier this month.
"There is wide recognition
that it is time for Indonesia to seek alternative resources for its defence
needs, and China is an important partner," Dr Bantarto Bandoro of the Indonesian
Defence University said. China is more willing to share and transfer technology
and "does not impose conditions".
Apart from China, Indonesia is
also working with South Korea to produce jet fighters and submarines, and with
Spain to build me-dium-range transport aircraft.
Bantarto said Washington probably
made the offer of additional F-16s because it did not want the balance to be
tilted too much by closer Indonesia-China military ties.
The Defence Ministry says it is
happy to work closely with both sides, a posture mirroring that of the Foreign
Ministry that eschews taking sides even as it seeks to carve out a middleman
role for the country amid renewed great power interest in the region.
President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said last week the budget increase is "aimed at improving the
readiness and reliability of the TNI in safeguarding (our) territorial
sovereignty, in executing defensive tasks of the state during peace-time, and
in participating in the maintenance of world peace".
MPs have voiced support for the
increased spending.
Parahyangan Catholic University
academic Mira Permatasari said there is growing recognition that security and
social development needs can be mutually reinforcing. The two, just like
stronger defence links with both China and the US, are not a zero-sum game, she
added.
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