Poland-RI to hold defense exhibition
Poland-RI to hold defense exhibition
Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Poland and Indonesia are planning to hold a joint exhibition of
military equipment in Jakarta by the end of November, a senior
Polish official said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The exhibition plan has surfaced nine months after the two
countries signed a declaration on technical cooperation in
military affairs, during Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski's visit to Indonesia in February.
"(There is) a recent agreement about cooperation in the
military industry, and maybe they'll organize an exhibition of
military equipment, which would be held in Jakarta by the end of
November, and would be visited by our minister of defense. It's
not yet decided but we'll encourage him to come," Bogustaw
Zaleski, Poland's deputy minister of foreign affairs, told The
Jakarta Post in a brief interview.
However, he declined to give more details, including the date.
Zaleski was leading a 12-member high-level delegation,
including two other deputy ministers of economy and of finance,
to Jakarta for a two-day bilateral consultation with Indonesian
officials.
He said that the consultations, which ended on Tuesday,
focused on preparations for the 50th anniversary of the
establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two
countries, and on economic issues and investment.
The economic cooperation was yet to show more tangible
results, he said. He reiterated that bilateral trade had been in
Indonesia's favor for several years. Last year, Poland imported
goods worth US$250 million from Indonesia, and its exports to
Indonesia were valued at just $17.2 million.
"So, first our goal is just to balance this deficit. We are
not looking for any kind of surplus, but for a balance and the
development of bilateral relations," he said.
Poland -- a major defense hardware exporting country from
Central Europe, and a new member of the world's powerful regional
grouping, the European Union -- can help Indonesia with its
defense industry.
Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said, during his
visit to Indonesia in February, that an agreement on military-
technical cooperation was expected to ensue, but he did not
elaborate. He was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying that
such an agreement might contribute to Poland's presence in the
Indonesian market and strengthen both countries' relations.
Furthermore, Szmajdzinski said that Poland wanted to cooperate
with Indonesia in certain fields, such as logistics and defense
industries. The country offered a broad range of goods and
services in these fields, such as airplanes, helicopters and
advanced radar technologies and the modernization of post-soviet
hardware used by the Indonesian Army.
"We would like to intensify the exchange of information and
visits of military representatives, as well as to enlarge the
scope of training," PAP quoted him as saying in Jakarta in
February.