The foreign and defense ministers of China and Indonesia met in Jakarta with the aim of deepening political and military cooperation, a few days after the joint naval exercise, which was described as a "provocation" by Taiwan. Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono, while hosting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, described the talks as "an important milestone in our bilateral relations" and revealed the picture by adding the following:
“These talks serve as a forward-looking strategic platform that guides our bilateral partnership in five key areas: politics, economy, maritime, people-to-people dialogue and security.”
As is known, Indonesia walks a fine line between Washington and Beijing while maintaining a basically neutral line in foreign policy, which it defines as "free and active".
REACTION FROM TAIWAN TO 'MILITARY PROVOCATION'
But Jakarta and Beijing held a joint naval exercise in eastern Taiwan earlier this month, drawing the ire of the island's government. Instead of an exercise, the two countries claimed that the issue was the passage of an Indonesian frigate returning from Russia's easternmost port city, Vladivostok. Taiwan, on the other hand, would describe this as a "military provocation" by the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang said on Friday that it is very important for Beijing and Jakarta, as important representatives of the 'Global South', to "increase strategic communication and deepen strategic coordination". Wang said, “Today's world is fluid and turbulent” and continued:
“The politics of unipolarity and hegemony we have seen so far has dealt a heavy blow to both this world and the global development agenda.”
MISSILE FACTORIES
The ministers also chaired the first of the so-called "China-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue Mechanism" meetings on Friday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters before Wang's visit that the aim was to "improve the cohesion of development strategies." According to reports from the Beijing front, Wang was later joined by Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and held talks with his Indonesian counterparts about "political security and defense cooperation, as well as international and regional situations."
Indonesian Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin later said that the two countries "will also cooperate on issues such as missiles, rockets" but refrained from giving further details, saying, "China will help and they will transfer their technologies, so we can establish factories together in Indonesia."
In addition, Jakarta and Beijing will hold another military exercise this year under the name Heping Garuda, which will be a recurring joint exercise focusing on humanitarian aid, disaster relief and military cooperation, Sjafrie said. As you may remember, last year Indonesia; It had joined the BRICS, a bloc of developing economies that also includes Russia and China.
However, on the other hand, President Prabowo Subianto signed a trade agreement with US President Donald Trump and joined the formation that Trump called the "Peace Board". Commenting on the issue to AFP, Pieter Pandie, an international relations researcher at the think tank CSIS, underlined that Jakarta was still leaning more towards Washington than Beijing, and said, "From a security and defense perspective, the Indonesia-China relationship is still much less developed compared to Indonesia's security cooperation with other Western and Asian partners," while underlining that it was too early to evaluate Friday's meeting as a deep axis shift.
