Kalla said that in the country's history, there were two periods when the Indonesian military had a great military posture, the first being in the 1960s offensive campaign under the Dwikora and Trikora operations and then during the 1980s.

Kalla said that the country's military had suffered setbacks ever since.

"Currently we have yet to have such a force posture [as those in the past] but there are efforts to at least reach the level of the 1980s," he told a seminar held by Think and Act for National Defense (TANDEF), a think-tank of defense and strategic studies established by the alumni of the Taruna Nusantara Senior High School Alumni Association (IKASTARA).

Kalla also concurred with another speaker at the seminar, Lt. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakri, who said that Indonesia should no longer look for common enemies but find common objectives for the future.

Another speaker, military analyst Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, added that the country needed the military to deal with so-called non-military threats, including food and energy insecurity.

"We need more power to defend the country from illegal fishing or in the race to find new sources of energy, for example," she said.

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