French air force mission makes stopover in Indonesia to boost security ties

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — France’s air force made a stopover in Indonesia’s capital on Wednesday, part of a visit to Southeast Asia that’s meant to display French commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific region amid growing Chinese maritime activity there.

The French mission, named Pegase, visited Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma air force base on a weeks-long trip that also included stops in countries including Malaysia and Singapore. It showcased two Rafale fighter jets, a tanker transport plane and one A400M Airbus military transport plane.

The mission aimed to boost military cooperation between France and Indonesia, Brig. Gen. Guillaume Thomas, Chief of the 2024 Pagase mission, told a news conference after showing the aircrafts to journalists.

“We want to assert our position as a proactive regional power in the Indo-Pacific completely, dedicated to the security of the area and defending the freedom of navigation when necessary,” Thomas said.

He said Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto and French President Emmanuel Macron “will conduct a long awaited bilateral meeting in Paris this week to strengthen our ties even more, diplomatically and militarily.”

The French Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement ahead of the July 20-27 stopover that the mission “shows France’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and its close ties with the country partners in the region.”

Indonesia has embarked on a drive to upgrade and modernize its arsenal and strengthen its domestic defense industry. The country completed an order for 42 French Rafale fighter jets in January, and the first delivery is expected in early 2026, defense ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edwin Adrian Sumantha said in a statement.

Subianto, who is also currently Indonesia’s defense minister, has crisscrossed the globe since he was appointed in 2019, traveling to China, France, Russia, Turkey and the United States in a bid to acquire new military weapon systems as well as surveillance and territorial defense capabilities.

The Indonesian Air Force currently operates a mix of fighter jets made in various countries, including the United States, Russia and Britain. However, some of those aircraft had reached or would soon reach their end-of-life phase, and needed to be replaced or upgraded, Sumantha said.

The purchase of the French jets came amid rising tensions in the region, especially in the South China Sea, where China has been asserting its expansive claims over the disputed waters. Indonesia is not a claimant state in the South China Sea, but it has clashed with China over the fishing rights around the Natuna Islands, which lie within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone but in waters also claimed by China.

The South China Sea is home to vital shipping lanes, plentiful fish stocks and undersea mineral resources. China and Association of Southeast Asia Nations have made little headway in finalizing a code of conduct to avoid conflicts in the area.

Indonesia last year signed a contract to buy 13 Thales Ground Control Interception radars from the French. Five of them are expected to be installed in the country’s new capital, Nusantara.