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JAKARTA - INDONESIA will not join any Asian arms race, the defence minister said on Thursday, after Australia announced it planned to build up its military in response to a regional weapons buying spree.
Indonesia will avoid any major boost to military spending over the next five to 10 years as it focuses on the economy and social spending, Mr Juwono Sudarsono said during a press conference with his Australian counterpart Joel Fitzgibbon.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week flagged a rise in defence spending to respond to military expansion by newly affluent Asian states, but he did not give a figure for the increase.
Indonesia plans to purchase a small number of high tech jets and submarines to reach 'technological parity' with its neighbours, but will continue to focus on relief operations for disasters that regularly hit the archipelago nation.
'The bulk of our defence (spending) is on transport, because we need transport to provide relief efforts in terms of both man-made as well as natural disasters,' Mr Sudarsono said.
'We don't feel that we are engaged in an arms race, certainly not on strike force capabilities.'
Speaking to reporters last week, Mr Rudd said Australia was 'in a region where there is an explosion in defence expenditure.'
'There has been an arms race under way ? well, an arms build-up, let me put it in those terms ? in the Asia Pacific region for the better part of the last decade,' he said.
Indonesia and Australia enjoy a close military relationship but ties are periodically strained by mutual distrust and Indonesian suspicion of Australian support for separatist movements in far-flung provinces. -- AFP
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