Jakarta. Sudanese Defense Minister Hassan Daoud Kabroun Kayan said Wednesday that his country would not hesitate to treat Indonesia’s foe as its own enemy and vice versa, as Khartoum sought a possible arms deal.

Kabroun is currently in Jakarta for a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. It was after their closed-door talks that Kabroun said that both countries had been long-time friends, while adding that it would be natural for them to have each other’s backs.

“So anyone hostile to Indonesia is an enemy of Sudan. Anyone hostile to Sudan is also Indonesia’s foe. We shall be together in doing good,” Kabroun told the press via an interpreter.

Sjafrie did not make a media statement.

However, Indonesian Defense Ministry spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirait later told the press that Kabroun’s common enemy remark was “only a reflection of the deep emotional ties”. He revealed that a defense cooperation arrangement was in the pipeline, but admitted that the governments were still ironing out the details, including the deadline for the document.

It remains unclear what constitutes Sudan’s enemy in Kabroun’s eyes. Sudan is currently witnessing a civil war at home led by its paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Rico assured that Jakarta “wouldn’t get dragged into internal conflicts of other countries and [military] blocs”, citing Indonesia’s “free and active” foreign diplomacy. He expressed Jakarta’s hopes for peace in Sudan.

Rico admitted that Sudan was “quite interested” in buying Indonesian arms, signaling a possible deal for the state-run weaponsmaker Pindad. Asked whether these contracts would not go into supplying the civil war, Rico said that Khartoum and Jakarta would sit together later to discuss the right mechanism.

“We will discuss the technicalities on the defense industry cooperation, … to what extent will it focus, especially concerning the [sales of] Indonesian-made weapons,” Rico told the press.

Indonesia has always taken a neutral approach on global conflicts with a strong emphasis on peaceful resolutions. President Prabowo Subianto would often say that it’s not enough for Jakarta to have a thousand friends, but “one enemy is too many”.

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