Indonesia and China to develop missiles

Indonesia and China to develop missiles

Reuters, Jakarta

Indonesia and China will work together to develop short-range guided missiles as ties between the two large Asian countries warm, the official Antara news agency reported on Tuesday.

Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman, quoted by Antara, said the idea had been around since 2002 but was only made concrete when Chinese President Hu Jintao met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta last month.

The missile agreement would be signed when Susilo visits China in June or July, Kadiman said, adding that the missiles to be developed with China would have a range of 15-30 kilometers.

China has one of the most advanced missile programs in the region.

As part of the plan, Indonesian scientists would be able to dismantle Chinese missiles and study their systems so Indonesia could produce similar missiles, Kadiman said.

Indonesia does not have a major missile program. The country has also been unable to buy weapons from traditional supplier the United States because of a ban put in place following violence in neighboring East Timor in the 1990s.

For years, the world's most populous Muslim nation has seen its main enemies as internal, such as separatist movements. The warming in ties between Indonesia and China follows a long, uneasy history.

Diplomatic ties were broken in 1967 after Jakarta accused Beijing of backing an attempted coup by the Communist Party of Indonesia. In an anti-communist crackdown that followed the coup, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly ethnic Chinese, were killed.

Relations were not restored until 1990, but intermittent violence against Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community, which arouses public anger in China, had made for a brittle friendship.

Indonesia has said Chinese statistics show annual two-way trade at US$14 billion while Jakarta puts it at $9 billion.