Indonesia's Minister of Defense, Prabowo Subianto, met with his French counterpart, Florence Parly. (Image via Gatra)

Prabowo meets French counterpart to discuss military system

Indonesia’s Minister of Defense, Prabowo Subianto, stated his interest to invite the French defense industry companies to improve Indonesia’s primary weaponry defense system (Alutsista). Prabowo delivered his interest during his visit to some French defense industry companies in Paris on Monday.

The companies cover the production of fighter jets, warships, RADAR, avionic systems, and ammunition. Prabowo hailed France as Indonesia’s strategic partner with advanced defense industries.

According to an official statement released by Indonesian Embassy in Paris, Indonesia invites France to be Indonesia’s strategic partner to help Indonesia fortify its Armed Forces’ alutsista and accelerate the development of national defense industry companies as a part of the global production chain.

Not only defense industry companies but Prabowo also met his French counterpart, Florence Parly. During the meeting, Prabowo and Parly agreed to strengthen Indonesia – France's defense relations for both defense sectors.

Both Defense Ministers then drafted the strengthening of defense cooperation in the future into a Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA). The DCA is expected to be finished in 2020.

Prabowo noted that for 70 years of bilateral relations, defense cooperation between Indonesian and France is going really well. The opportunity to fortify Indonesia’s defense sector is wide and should be used to its best potential.

The DCA emphasizes issues such as training and education, development of defense industry, scientific and defense industry technological cooperation, intelligence-sharing, peace-keeping operations, humanity, and terrorism eradication.

In 2017, Indonesia and France also signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to strengthen their defense cooperation, including maritime cooperation and security. While in 2013, Indonesia – France Defense Dialog (IFDD) is established to be held annually. Through IFDD, Indonesia and France discuss areas of bilateral cooperation and discussions covering all sectors such as training and education, reciprocal state visit, and terrorism eradication.

Source: https://bit.ly/2tT6ZDJ