Researcher says US overflight clearance could benefit Indonesia

National security researcher Ulta Leability Nababan believes that the overflight clearance requested by the United States could provide benefits for Indonesia. According to her, this cooperation could make it easier for Indonesia to monitor the movement of United States aircraft traversing national airspace.

“With this access, it becomes more organised, faster, and aircraft movements are better monitored by our defence system,” said Levenia during a podcast broadcast by the official account of the Ministry of Defence, during an interview with the Head of the Defence Information Bureau, Rico Ricardo Sirait, on Tuesday.

According to Levenia, overflight clearance is a common practice among various nations and, generally, processing such permits requires time as it must pass through several bureaucratic stages.

She noted that US aircraft may have previously traversed Indonesian airspace. However, without a clear cooperation framework, it would be more difficult for the government to conduct comprehensive monitoring.

“US parties may have been passing through for some time now, and we might not know. But with this framework, it becomes more legal and more organised,” she said.

Through this cooperation, Indonesia will have a clearer framework to monitor United States aircraft traffic. “This means we can ‘bring a wild lion into a cage’. Therefore, we know where this person is moving,” she remarked, using an analogy to illustrate the importance of surveillance.

Furthermore, Levenability assessed that every military cooperation agreement generally provides benefits to both parties. She estimated that Indonesia also has the potential to gain other benefits from this cooperation, including opportunities for access to more advanced technology or main weapons systems (Alutsista).

According to her, the current document is still in the form of a ‘Letter of Intent’ (LoI), which is not yet legally binding. A Letter of Intent is a written document stating an initial commitment between two parties before they enter into a final, legally binding contract, summarising key points of agreement to guide further negotiations.

“Whether this LoI will subsequently be elevated to an MoU or a more binding form of cooperation depends on both parties,” she concluded.