RI to buy warships from the Netherlands

JAKARTA: The government has decided to purchase two corvette warships from the Netherlands in a bid to boost the capacity of the Indonesian Navy.

Director General for Defense Procurement at the Ministry of Defense Rear Adm. Pieter Wattimena said that the fast and lightly armed ships were expected to be delivered to Indonesia in 2007. He did not provide further details.

He said that the vessel purchase was one of the items discussed on Wednesday by Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono and his visiting counterpart from the Netherlands Henricus Grogorius.

According to Pieter, the two sides discussed ways to boost cooperation in the area of defense. The Netherlands government has also offered cooperation in the maintenance and the supply of components for military aircraft, particularly the Fokker planes (F-27 and F-28), which are still being used by the Indonesian Airforce. -- Antara