JAKARTA: China’s foreign and defence ministers met their Indonesian counterparts in Jakarta on Friday for talks seeking greater political and military cooperation, days after a joint navy drill Taiwan described as a “provocation”.

The talks marked “an important milestone in our bilateral relations”, Indonesia’s foreign minister Sugiono said as he welcomed his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

“It serves as a forward-looking strategic platform, guiding our bilateral partnership across all five pillars — political, economic, maritime, people-to-people, and security.” Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, described as “free and active”, walking a diplomatic tightrope between Beijing and Washington.

Jakarta and Beijing raised Taipei’s ire earlier this month with a joint navy drill off the island’s east coast. The two countries said it was a “passing exercise”, with an Indonesian frigate passing through on its return home from the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

Wang said it was crucial for Beijing and Jakarta to “increase strategic communication, to deepen strategic coordination” as important representatives of the global south.

“Today’s world is fluid and turbulent,” he said in translated remarks provided by Indonesia’’ foreign ministry.

“We are seeing unilateralism and hegemonism. They have dealt a heavy blow to this world as well as to the global development agenda.”

The ministers headed the inaugural meeting of a “China-Indonesia comprehensive strategic dialogue mechanism”.

Its purpose is to boost “the alignment of development strategies”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters before Wang’s visit.

Wang was later joined by Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in talks with Indonesian counterparts on “political security and defence cooperation and international and regional situations.

Missiles and rockets

Indonesian Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin later said the countries would “cooperate in missiles, rockets, and so on”, without giving further details.

“They (China) will help and they will transfer their technology so that we can build factories together in Indonesia,” he said.

Sjafrie said Jakarta and Beijing will also hold another military exercise this year under Heping Garuda, a recurring joint drill focused on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and military-to-military cooperation.

Last year, Indonesia joined the BRICS bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia and China.

But President Prabowo Subianto has also signed a trade deal with US President Donald Trump and joined his “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

International relations researcher Pieter Pandie of the CSIS think tank said Jakarta still leaned “much more” towards Washington than Beijing.

“From the security and defence side of things, the Indonesia-China relationship is still very much less developed… compared with Indonesia’s security cooperation with other Western and Asian partners,” he said.

“I wouldn’t look too much into whether or not (Friday’s meeting) signals some sort of realignment for Indonesia towards Beijing,” added Pandie.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2026