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.