Jakarta. Indonesia is increasingly looking to China as a potential major arms supplier as Jakarta seeks to modernize its aging military hardware and diversify its sources of defense equipment.
 
China accounted for 5.6% of global arms exports between 2021 and 2025 and has emerged as a major military power capable of independently producing advanced fighter jets and operating aircraft carriers.
 
Defense cooperation will be high on the agenda Friday, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Defense Minister Dong Jun are expected to meet their Indonesian counterparts, Sugiono and Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, in Jakarta under the two countries’ “2+2” foreign and defense ministers’ dialogue.
 
Senior Foreign Ministry official Arifianto Sofiyanto said both sides were still “ironing out the details” of the meeting. With Indonesia seeking to upgrade its weapons systems, attention is turning to whether the talks could pave the way for new procurement deals.
 
Adrianus Prima, a defense expert at Lembaga KERIS, said China’s Chengdu J-10 fighter jet was “worth considering,” particularly if Beijing offered a package including PL-15 air-to-air missiles to strengthen Indonesia’s deterrence capabilities.

Indonesia has signaled interest in acquiring J-10s in recent years, although no deal has been finalized.

Adrianus cautioned that procurement decisions should not be based on technical specifications alone. Indonesia must also consider technology transfers, logistics, life-cycle costs, spare parts availability, long-term support, and interoperability with its existing military hardware.

“Chinese systems can be different from those of Russia, the US or other countries,” Adrianus said.

“The issue is whether we can effectively integrate them into a single ecosystem of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.”

Still, he said diversifying suppliers was crucial to maintaining Indonesia’s “strategic autonomy” and reducing dependence on any single country.

Yohanes Sulaiman, an international relations analyst at Jenderal Achmad Yani University, said Jakarta had been “quite careful” in pursuing defense cooperation with Beijing.

He said any repercussions for Indonesia’s relations with the US and Japan would depend on the scope of agreements reached, with little impact expected if the talks were limited to routine cooperation and joint exercises.
 
Friday’s meeting will be the second Indonesia-China 2+2 dialogue, following the inaugural talks in Beijing in April 2025. The two countries then agreed to deepen security cooperation, including intelligence exchanges, coordination against transnational and cybercrime and extremism, and consultations on disarmament, non-proliferation, and arms control.

Add as a preferred source on Google +