SECOND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE VISITS INDONESIA

Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen was on a two-day visit to Jakarta, from 18 to 19 Nov, in conjunction with the Indo Defence and Indo Aerospace 2008 Expo and Forum.

The opening ceremony of the Indo Defence exhibition was officiated by the Vice-President of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla, on 19 Nov.

During the visit, Dr Ng met with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Admiral (Ret) Widodo Adisutjipto, Minister for Defence Juwono Sudarsono and Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) GEN Djoko Santoso.

As founding members of ASEAN, Singapore and Indonesia have shared interests in reinforcing defence cooperation within ASEAN and with extra-regional countries. With that in mind, the ministers reaffirmed the close, longstanding ties between the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and TNI, and sought to strengthen the cooperation between both armed forces.

The strong defence relationship between the SAF and the TNI dates back to 1974, when both navies held their first major bilateral exercise, Exercise Eagle.

Today, regular bilateral air, land and sea exercises, as well as professional exchanges are conducted by both armed forces to enhance professionalism and strengthen interoperability.