On Thursday, Sjafrie met with Indonesian Ambassador to Spain Adiyatwidi Adiwoso Asmady in the company of Defense Attache Col. Erry Herman, the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid said in an emailed statement.
The embassy said the deputy defense minister`s working visit to the three European countries was aimed at ensuring that Indonesia would soon follow up on the bilateral cooperation agreement with Spain in the defense field.
In this respect, the government was looking forward to showing a concrete result to establish an industrial cooperation between state aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia and its European counterpart to obtain a license to market its products in Southeast Asia, the statement said.
Defense cooperation between Indonesia and three European nations would hopefully support the modernization of the Indonesian military`s equipment and armaments in the future, it said.
The modernization of the military equipment and armaments was expected to come into being on October 5, 2014 when the Indonesian Defense Force celebrated its anniversary, it said.
This year the government raised budget allocations for the Defense Ministry to Rp74 trillion. In the 2010-2014 period the ministry will receive budget allocations totaling Rp150 trillion and foreign loans worth US$6.5 billion to modernize the military`s main armament system, the embassy said.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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