TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
RI, Japan join forces to face security threats, piracy
Japan and Indonesia look to expand security cooperation, including possibly establishing a joint anti-piracy force in the Gulf of Aden, after decades of focusing on economic development ties, officials say
Change Size
J
apan and Indonesia look to expand security cooperation, including possibly establishing a joint anti-piracy force in the Gulf of Aden, after decades of focusing on economic development ties, officials say.
Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Kojiro Shiojiri said Monday in a seminar to mark the Japan Self-Defense Force Day that Indonesia and Japan were “strategic partners” who had made constructive contributions to the region.
“Japan looks to elevate the relations in every aspect, including on security,” he said.
Shingo Miyamoto, counsellor at the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta, said the Indonesia Military (TNI) could work with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) on a joint anti-piracy force in the Gulf of Aden, given that many sailors passing through the area were Indonesians.
Following World War II, Japan was banned from dispatching its defense force abroad but later in 1992, the JSDF is allowed to provide limited foreign assistance such as taking part in humanitarian missions around the world, including in Indonesia during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
Since last year, the JSDF has also escorted international vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden, which is plagued by the threat of Somali pirates.
“That is one of the possibilities we can look to develop in our cooperations in the peace and security area as both [the TNI] and JSDF are active contributors to peacekeeping and humanitarian operations around the world,” said Miyamoto.
The 52-year-old diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Japan have focused mostly on economic cooperation. Japan is one of Indonesia’s main export destinations and Indonesia is the third-largest recipient of Japanese Overseas Development Assistance after China and India. Tokyo and Jakarta signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in 2007 that has seen import duties reduced to zero.
Miyamoto said both Japan and Indonesia could expand cooperation in security as the region was increasingly threatened by non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, transnational crime, climate change and natural disasters.
Japan granted Indonesia three patrol vessels to step up security in the piracy-prone Malacca Straits and also provided disaster-related logistics.
Agus Brotosusilo, an adviser to Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, said at the same seminar that Indonesia and Japan had worked closely to address non-traditional security threats in various security forums.
“Japan has always been our partner in these multilateral forums and we could look into potentially cooperating,” he said.
When asked whether Japan would seek to enhance its presence in the Malacca Straits, a strategic waterway for stability and economic interests in the region, Shiojiri said Japan had not made any single priority at the moment but added that Japan would continue working with Indonesia on security in the area.
The security of the Malacca Straits is the responsibility of littoral states Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore while foreign countries can contribute technical support, but not direct military assistance.
Indonesia and Malaysia have voiced caution against foreign security support in the Malacca Straits, where the overwhelming bulk of trade and crude oil supplies for Asia pass in transit, while Singapore has been more open to the idea.
