RI, Australia exploring defense industry cooperation

Antara ,  Brisbane   |  Thu, 03/27/2008 10:06 PM  |  Headlines

Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono and his Australian counterpart Joel Fitzgibbon in Canberra on Thursday discussed opportunities for mutually beneficial defense industry cooperation.

The two ministers also discussed ways of supporting capacity building through cooperation in science and technology development projects, according to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra on Thursday.

In their meeting which was held at the Explorer Room of the Parliament building in Canberra, the two defense ministers also agreed to encourage their armed forces` commanders to continue building common understanding on defense relations to further advance relations already existing so far.

Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said in a press statement following the meeting that priority in building common understanding on defense relations in the future would be given to `defense engagement`.

The defense engagement included military exercise, post-graduate education, exchanges of visits and studies, surveillance and maritime exercise and patrols.

He said that the common understanding would be built based on the Lombok Treaty on security cooperation to reflect the two countries` increasingly stronger relations.

Cooperations already existed and new initiatives would be carried out and coordinated through Indonesia-Australia defense strategic dialogs, he added.

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