Sino-RI ties should include defense, security cooperation

Sino-RI ties should include defense, security cooperation

Oei Eng Goan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

China's foreign diplomacy in 2001, the first year of its 10th
five-year plan for national, economic and social development, has
got into its stride as proven by its successful hosting of the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in
Shanghai, its acceptance into the World Trade Organization (WTO)
and winning the bid to become the host country for the Olympics
in 2008.

Relations with its neighbors also improved markedly when
Beijing and all 10-member countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed in November to set up the
China-ASEAN free trade area within the next decade.

This means that Indonesia, the largest member of ASEAN as well
as the richest in natural resources, should not miss the
opportunity to further enhance bilateral ties with China on the
basis of mutual interest and a win-win situation.

It is true that Sino-Indonesian trade has developed well over
the past decade following the resumption of full diplomatic ties
in 1990 -- from US$1.18 billion in 1990 to $7.47 billion in 2000,
with an increase of 54.5 percent over 1999 and always in
Indonesia's favor -- but friendly ties are not based on trade
alone. Political and cultural cooperation should also be
included, especially now that the international community is
facing rapid changes, prompting countries to cooperate more
closely so as to create a more equal balance of power.

China and Indonesia signed several agreements in November
during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Jakarta,
covering agriculture, fishing, energy and infrastructure. All
this is good, if appropriately and realistically implemented, in
that it will quicken the recovery of Indonesia's economic plight.

Realistically, because, according to sources, while the
Jakarta administration plans to build a bridge linking Java and
Sumatra with China's help, Beijing has instead proposed that,
along with other international financial institutions, it would
be more beneficial and less costly for Indonesia to build a
bridge linking Java and Bali.

In return, China has invited Indonesia to participate in its
energy and gas development in its southern province of Guangdong.
Beijing has reportedly hinted to Jakarta that it wants to buy
high-quality building materials from Indonesia for building and
refurbishing hotels and sports facilities required for the
Olympic Games in the coming seven years.

There is, however, slight mention of bilateral security and
defense cooperation.

Indonesia's strategic geographic location, lying on the
crossroads between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and bridging
Asia and Australia, obviously needs a strong and reliable defense
and security capability in maintaining its territorial integrity,
as well as cracking down on increasing transnational crimes such
as human trafficking, smuggling and piracy.

Being banned by most of its traditional arms suppliers on the
grounds of violating human rights in its former province of East
Timor, Indonesia should turn to China, whose arms industry has
won international recognition, to obtain what it cannot get from
Western countries as a result of the ban.

Moreover, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic
country, and as such requires a defense capability that is
suitable to achieve cohesive national security and sovereignty,
so as to contribute to regional peace and stability, a conducive
situation also needed by China to develop itself to become a
world superpower.

Hence, Indonesia's armed forces should make use of the
opportunity of the growing bilateral ties to modernize its
obsolete equipment, especially in its naval force, from China's
advanced military technology and industry.

Under pragmatic leadership over the past decade, China is
currently phasing out orthodox communism and the proletarian
dictatorship with more democratic and reformative principles
introduced by President Jiang Zemin's Theory of Three
Representations, focusing on productivity and efficiency,
advancement of culture and learning and political, economic
development that caters to the public interest.

Present-day China, unlike China in the 1960s, which was
allegedly eager to export communism to its neighbors, is an open
country that is moving toward democracy. Although it still adopts
communism as its state ideology, it nevertheless exercises a
free-market economy and the majority of its 1.3 billion
population, especially those in urban areas, have adhered to a
more liberal way of life.

As the initiators of peaceful coexistence and the 10
Principles of the Bandung conference of 1955, Indonesia and China
should forge a firmer friendship in a more constructive and
fruitful way. And the Jakarta government, for its part, should be
more active in taking up opportunities given by Beijing.