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Indonesia for defence tie-up with India

P. S. Suryanarayana

"We have a lot to learn from India on military professionalism"

Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono

SINGAPORE : Indonesia is exploring the possibility of accessing India's know-how in "network centric warfare" and also entering into joint production arrangements in the overall defence domain.

Disclosing this, Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has told The Hindu that Jakarta was keen that India, South Korea, China, and Japan "pitch in to provide the infrastructure of secure passage of trade through the Straits of Malacca."

Prof. Sudarsono, who was in Singapore for the Asia Security Conference that concluded on Sunday, said "we have a lot to learn from India" on matters relating to military "professionalism" and also "defence production capabilities."

Asked about the way forward in the context of the Indonesian Parliament's recent ratification of Jakarta's defence cooperation agreement with New Delhi, the Minister said: "I would like to have some joint production in terms of some more equipment, particularly [those relating to] command and control for the navy and also the logistical capacity of the army."

Praising India's "efficiently run defence force," he said Indonesia had to learn about planning and capacity-building for military purposes. "They have a good system. It is efficient; it's not top-heavy; it is not technology-heavy, too much; It is commensurate with the size of the country, with the size of population, and that is where the similarity comes in [for Indonesia's requirements]."

Jakarta's priority needs at this stage were skills and equipment for the command and control purposes of the navy. To meet these requirements, "we would like to tap into India's ability to develop the telecommunications industry, including that [which has] some impact on network-centric warfare

On India's possible contribution to the maintenance of security along the Straits of Malacca, Prof. Sudarsono said the littoral states, including Indonesia, were not asking external powers to deploy their naval forces across this waterway. The external powers could "provide technical assistance" and share the costs of maintaining security. It would, however, be left to the chambers of commerce to address the cost-sharing issue, he said.

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