O

ct. 31, p12

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s vision to make Indonesia the world'€™s maritime axis has prompted Germany, the world'€™s third-largest arms exporter, to strengthen the two countries'€™ bilateral partnership with maritime defense.

German Ambassador to Indonesia Georg Witschel said that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be visiting Indonesia on Nov. 2-3 to conduct bilateral talks with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

'€œGermany has a lot to offer, indeed. Our shipyards, supply industries, ocean carriers and logistic companies are strong players, standing ready to get more actively involved in Indonesia,'€ he told reporters at the embassy on Thursday.

Your comments:

According to my very limited experience of things '€œmade in Germany'€, from cars to kitchen utensils, they only break down after years of abuse, or just running out of fuel.

Well it'€™s hard to detect, so I presume those battleships and guns do not work when you run out of subsidized fuel or run out of ammunition.

Animi

Above all, Germany is eager to sell its high-quality industrial products and know-how to Indonesia, a country of 250 million people.

Jan Karl

Before we all start getting excited about Germany'€™s offer to sell arms, especially naval weapons and ships, to Indonesia to aid Jokowi'€™s vision of Indonesia as a maritime axis, we might pause for a moment.

Let'€™s reflect, shall we, and invite German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on his visit here next week, to explain all about the sale of 39 shoddy, old and virtually useless East German frigates, landing ships and minesweepers to the Indonesian Navy in 1993-1994. They were rusting hulks that make the recent Transjakarta buses from China seem like Rolls-Royces in comparison!

Tarry McAsee

When buying new ships, the ships have to be constructed.

In the construction the purchaser can decide what changes they want to the basic planned design and include exactly what they want within the construction; basically the ships are '€œtailor-made'€ to exactly what you want.

It is very costly and obviously Indonesia did not want to pay that high cost.

Indonesia instead chose to purchase '€œsecondhand'€ ships that had already been built for somebody else to suit what they wanted, and the ships had already been used for years so they were worn and with age rust had appeared.

Similarly like buying used cars, it'€™s '€œbuyer beware'€. It is common practice to examine the goods before the purchase so Indonesia would have known exactly what it was buying and for what price.

If there was any mistake, then it was Indonesia'€™s mistake, and obviously Indonesia did not want to buy new ships, as it simply did not want to spend that very large amount of money.

New Navy ships are very expensive, particularly so if the ships include all the latest technology.

All the countries that rely mostly on sea trade and are regarded as '€œworld maritime axis'€ countries do have strong, modern navies, a least at medium strength or higher as compared to other mostly sea-trading countries.

Maybe due to that the Germans thought that there was a good business opportunity, as Indonesia may want to have a strong modern navy where Germany could provide Indonesia with what it needs.

Eddy Saf