"Since the beginning, I have stated that the procurement of alutsista should be adjusted to focus on concrete threat," he stated in a year-end press conference at the Defense Ministry here on Thursday.
He noted that during the early days of President Joko Widodo`s Working Cabinet, he had mentioned that there was no open war with other country and that the threat of war was not real.
"Only if it (the threat) becomes real and disturbs the state sovereignty, we will wage a war," he added.
The real threats facing the country currently include terrorism, natural disaster, rebellion, border threat, illegal fishing, disease outbreak, intelligence war, and drugs, he remarked.
Hence, the Defense Ministry will ensure that the procurement of alutsista in the future will be directed towards addressing the concrete threats, he revealed.
"In the past I only proposed it, but it must be realized in the future," he stressed.
Citing an example, he pointed out that, on the defense side, while facing disasters, Indonesia must have alutsista to mitigate natural disasters and search for victims of natural disasters.
"For instance, to anticipate potential natural disasters and mitigate the damage caused by natural disasters, we will use aircraft which can reach disaster-hit locations in hours, so that the number of victims could be minimized," he explained.
Reporting by Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga, Suharto
Editing by Andi Abdussalam
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
