Germany, Indonesia plan to strengthen military relations

Indonesia and Germany are planning to expand military cooperation, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday in the Indonesian capital Jakarta at a meeting with his counterpart Prabowo Subianto.

The two ministers discussed the possibility of joint military exercises, Pistorius said.

Subianto described the meeting as "very productive," without giving details. Bilateral relations with Germany in the defence sector were very good and should be further strengthened, he said.

Pistorius travelled to Jakarta on Sunday as part of a multi-day visit to the Indo-Pacific region. Berlin has outlined plans to increase cooperation with the states in the region.

In a lecture at the Lemhannas National Resilience Institute, Pistorius said Asia and the Indo-Pacific region would play a decisive role in shaping the 21st century. Any conflict would have severe consequences for the region and the whole world, he said.

As a trading and exporting nation, Germany knows how great the consequences of a disruption of supply chains would be, the minister said: "Peace, stability and prosperity are closely linked in all parts of the world."

Earlier, Pistorius had stressed the importance of a major military exercise due to start next week for the security of Germany and its allies.

The NATO Air Defender drills will take place in the skies over Germany from June 12-23, with 25 NATO nations, 250 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers taking part under German leadership.

"Of course, we are doing everything we can to impact the population and civil air traffic as little as possible. To this end, we have been coordinating very closely with all those involved for months," Pistorius told dpa on Monday during his trip to Jakarta.

"With Air Defender 2023 as the largest deployment exercise of air forces since the founding of NATO, we are strengthening the alliance and transatlantic relations. Together with our allies, we are demonstrating that we can defend the alliance area in a responsive and powerful manner," said Pistorius.

As host, Pistorius said that Germany is proving "that we not only talk about international responsibility, but also take it on as a logistical hub in Europe and as the nation leading such a large exercise."

Air forces can be deployed quickly in a crisis because of their range and speed. In particular, the deployment of some 100 US aircraft from across the Atlantic as part of the exercise shows how reinforcements are brought in. The Inspector of the German air force, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, had presented the concept in the US in 2018.

During the drills, "scenarios such as combating drones or cruise missiles are practised. And also the defence of airports as well as seaports," an air force spokesman told dpa.

The exercise will focus on how a fictitious attack by an eastern aggressor (referred to as OCCASUS) on alliance territory - in this case on Germany - can be jointly repelled by the NATO allies.

During the two-week operation, three airspaces are to be closed to civil aviation on a time-shifted basis from Monday to Friday. The military exercise may also disrupt parts of civilian flight schedules.