INDONESIA: U.S Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Indonesia visit cements US military ties

Record ID: 184621

  • Title: INDONESIA: U.S Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Indonesia visit cements US military ties
  • Date: 6th June 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF RUMSFELD AND SUDARSONO
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3NHE1EO4FUPI1QVG1125JYVVM
  • Story Text: U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cemented military ties with Indonesia during a landmark visit on Tuesday (June 6) to the most populous Muslim country.
    He met Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as well as his counterpart during his visit, the final leg of a three-country Asian tour, took place six months after the State Department waived Congressional restrictions on U.S. military aid to Indonesia imposed in 1992 over human rights abuses by Indonesian forces.
    "The United States and Indonesia have as you know re-established normal military-to-military relations, which I believe is a very good thing for our country and for both of our countries. The ability for our militaries to work more closely with each other is clear when things that took place like the tsunami or what took place with respect to the earthquake. And the need to know each other and to be able to communicate well with each other, understand each other when there's a disaster of that type," Rumsfeld said at a news conference at the end of his visit.
    The world's most populous Muslim country with 220 million people, Indonesia is valued by the United States for its strategic weight and as an example of Islamic democracy.
    Rumsfeld said prior to arriving in Jakarta that he was not seeking particular pledges or actions from Indonesia on his brief visit, which he said would be mainly aimed to "tend to relationships" and discuss counter-terrorism, maritime security and intelligence sharing.
    Indonesia's Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said that it was important for states to have the primary control of the security matters.
    "In the application of security, including anti-terrosist laws and anti-terrorist measures, it's best that you leave the main responsibility of anti-terror measures to the local government in question and not to be insistent, overly insistent of immediate results rising from your perception about terrorists. It is important for us because as the largest Muslim country, we are very aware of the perception or misperception that the U.S. is overbearing, overpresence and overwhelming in every sector of life in many nations and cultures," he said. Rumsfeld had earlier hailed an expanding network of multilateral security cooperation in Asia, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit -- two groups that include the United States.
    Multilateral approaches, he said, were key in tackling threats from "violent extremists and rouge regimes".
    "Our position from the very outset has been that we wanted the collaboration of other countries because it is a global problem, to the extent that those countries felt comfortable of doing it. As a result, we never, I never I should say, have indicated to any country that they should do something that they're not comfortable of doing. We have as a matter of fact not even announced to the world what other countries were doing and we've left to those countries the ability to tell the world what they were doing in a way they wanted to tell the world. And as a result the global war on terror now has a coalition that's probably the largest coalition in the history of the world," Rumsfeld said.
    Indonesia has suffered from several attacks in recent years blamed by police and intelligence officials on the militant Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiah, linked to al Qaeda. The deadliest bombing attack was in Bali in 2002, when 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed. Other attacks include blasts at a luxury hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and a second attack in Bali last year.
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