Indonesian Ambassador to Türkiye, Dr. Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, spoke to Defensehere.com about the defense industry cooperation between Indonesia and Türkiye.
Saying that Turkiye can be an alternative source of military supply for Indonesia in the future and that the attendance of Turkish companies to Indo Defence is a great way to be better known in the region, Dr. Lalu Muhamad Iqbal stated the following:
"First if you look into the 20 of the world’s biggest militaries, you can see that Indonesia and Turkey both are in the list. So, both are among the biggest militaries in the world.
Second, both Indonesia and Turkiye aspires to have more independency in military supply. Not to mention the fact that we are bound by such a strong history and mutual relations. So it will be very easy for Indonesia and Turkiye to understand each other.
It would be very easy for Indonesia and Turkiye to build chemistry with each other so I’m sure that in the future our defense industry cooperation will get better and better in time due to the fact that we have the same background and we both aspire for more independency in our defense industry and our military supply.
Turkiye can be an alternative source of military supply for Indonesia in the future and there are many technologies that we can exchange between the two countries.
You know that the Indo Defence is a biannual exhibition in Indonesia. It will be taking place at the same time with other exhibitions as well. The Aerospace Expo and also Indo Marine Expo, so three expos at the same time.
So, it makes this exhibition the biggest of that kind in the region, in South East Asia. And South East Asia is certainly one of emerging region.
It consists of at least ten emerging countries. With the economies growing, the need for enhancing defense profile is also increasing in the region.
So, this is good market for Turkiye and I cannot recommend a better expo in the region but Indo Defence for Turkiye’s defense industry to promote itself.
Because despite the fact that Turkish defense industry is growing very fast in the last 10 years but it is relatively unknown in the region. That’s why its very important for Turkish defense industry to show their profile through participating in that kind of exhibition.
And I’m quite happy to know and to hear that its going to be the biggest participation of Turkiye in Indo Defence. I heard that there will be at least 29 to 30 biggest defense industry companies in Turkiye will be participating.
Of course this is not a new interaction between Indonesian defense industry and Turkish defense industry. We have started the interaction since long time, at least in the last 5-6 years.
But by participating in this defense exhibition in Indonesia I’m sure that it will make the profile of Turkish defense industry more known by the media, by the public. We will see the coverage of media during that event which I’m sure will be very interesting one.
I’m sure that after this there will be more and more cooperation and interaction between Indonesia and defense industries in Turkiye.
I mean the growth of Turkish defense industry was incredible in the last 10 years. Everybody acknowledged that but for the public, especially in Indonesia, It’s relatively unknown. That’s why I’m so happy to hear that this time it is going to be the biggest participation of Turkiye in Indo Defence.
It will make Turkish defense industry more known by our public. The only problem with Turkiye is they are not quite known by the public. But now in the last 3-4 years you have a new icon, TB2 Bayraktar. It became a new icon.
Now with this it brings out, not only, Bayraktar’s products but also it will bring new profile to the entire defense industry in Turkiye. Not to mention other achievements like TCG Anadolu, for example. It will, again, increase the profile of the defense industry in Turkiye.
Actually the technology transfers between Indonesia and Turkiye has been started for 30 years, in the last 30 years.
When we started the transfers of our technology in aircraft industry from Indonesia to Turkiye to produce CN-235 for example.
But now it is turn for the Turkish side now to transfer technology to Indonesia. But this tradition of transferring technology between Indonesia and Turkiye is not new in our relation.
It is because, as I said in the beginning the two countries can easily find their chemistry. The two countries can easily understand each other. So this is the greatest and strongest foundation for the two countries to develop their relations in the future, especially in defense industry."
