Indonesia asks China for bigger drills, and Beijing offers defence technology

Indonesia's defence minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, met his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, in Jakarta on Friday and asked for broader and more intensive joint military exercises with China. Nikkei Asia reports that Beijing agreed in the same meeting to technology transfer and to cooperation between the two countries' defence industries.

Technology transfer is the part worth understanding. It means the seller does not just hand over finished equipment but shares the know-how behind it, so the buyer can maintain, repair and in time help build the thing at home. It is what any buyer wants, because taking delivery of a ship or a jet and nothing else leaves you dependent on the seller for parts and servicing for decades. It is also the kind of promise that is easy to make in a meeting and slow to appear in a contract. No weapon, project, factory or figure was named, which is the main reason to hold the announcement lightly for now.

The timing is the awkward part. The request lands days after a Chinese naval encounter with an Indonesian frigate east of Taiwan that Beijing described as a joint drill and Taipei called dangerous, and while a further Chinese navy drill with Indonesia is planned. Asking for more exercises with the same navy, in the same month, answers the question other capitals had been asking about which way Jakarta is leaning.

Why it matters

Indonesia says it takes nobody's side, so each new defence deal with Beijing raises the price of that claim with Washington, Tokyo and Canberra, and those are the governments that also decide on trade access and investment. Watch for two things: whether any of this becomes a signed contract with named equipment, and whether Jakarta arranges something comparable with a non-Chinese partner soon after. If the first happens without the second, the balancing act has quietly stopped being balanced.