Indonesia is considering buying Chinese-made J-10 fighters, the model that downed a French-built Rafale warplane during the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.
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Antara, Indonesia’s national news agency, reported on Wednesday that the country’s deputy minister of defence, Donny Ermawan Taufanto, had said that China had offered to sell the jets during a recent visit to an arms fair in China by Mohamad Tonny Harjono, the country’s air chief marshal.
“When we evaluated it, the plane was good, it met our criteria and it’s affordable, so why not?,” Donny said.
He added that Indonesia could buy defence equipment from any country, but stressed the government needed to take other criteria into consideration as well, including how to integrate new planes with the air force’s existing equipment.
“In terms of its capabilities, how far it can fly, the types of weapons it could carry, we will have to see later,” he said.
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Earlier this year, China and Indonesia pledged to boost military cooperation following a visit to Beijing by Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, where he met General Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. The two countries also staged a joint drill in November last year.