The commitment of the two countries to strengthen cooperation in defence industry would be high on the agenda of a meeting between Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and his Chinese counterpart, Gen Liang Guanglie, next week, spokesman of the Indonesian Defence Ministry Brig Gen Hartind Asrin said here on Friday.
"We have a lot of cooperation (with China) in education and training, exchange of officers and the like. We also have been trying to set up a variety of defense industry cooperation schemes(with China)," he said.
The defense cooperation between the two countries had existed for quite a long time, he said adding the two countries held a joint consultation forum in Jakarta in 2006 and a bilateral consultation forum in Beijing in 2007.
The forums had enabled the two countries to enhance their defence cooperation as evident from the signing of an Indonesia-China Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in 2007, he said.
Although the DCA could not yet be implemented as it still had to be ratified by Indonesia, Yusgiantoro expressed hope that the two countries would proceed with the bilateral consultation forum as a way of enhancing defence cooperation.
During his stay, Yusgiantoro will also pay a courtesy call on Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang. He will also visit Chinese rocket and guided-missile maker ALIT (Aerospace Long March International Trade and Co.Ltd) and China Precision Machinery Import-Export Cooperation in connection with C-705 guided-missile ordered by the Indonesian Navy. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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