Indonesia’s Sovereignty Non-Negotiable: President Jokowi

President Jokowi poses for a group photo with participants of the 2020 Leadership Meeting (Rapim) of Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan), the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) in Jakarta, Thursday (23/1). Photo by: Jay/PR.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reiterated that Indonesia’s sovereignty is non-negotiable.

“I order all ranks of the TNI (Indonesian National Defense Forces) and the Polri (Indonesian National Police) to strengthen and maintain the sovereignty of our country Indonesia, to be at the forefront of safeguarding and strengthening the sovereignty of our homeland,” the President said in his remarks during the 2020 Leadership Meeting (Rapim) of Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan), the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) in Jakarta, Thursday (23/1).

The President added that the most important thing is the ability to cover the entire spectrum of defense, including internal conflicts, asymmetric wars such as guerrilla warfare and terror, proxy wars using third parties in warfare, and hybrid warfare that combines military and non-military strategies, as well as conventional and non-conventional strategies.

The future challenges, the President added, are getting tougher because of the wider spectrum of conflicts in various parts of the world. “Therefore, we must strengthen defense diplomacy to reduce tensions among the countries and be ready to deploy armed forces to defend our land,” the President said.

The President also applauded Minister of Defense who visited other countries in order to implement defense diplomacy and inspect the primary weaponry defense system to be imported to Indonesia.

President Jokowi went on to say that rapid development of military technology in the next 20, 30, to 50 years should be anticipated.

The President further said that the latest development of artificial technology has created new military weapons, including unmanned aircraft equipped with modern weapons.

On that occasion, President Jokowi also urged the TNI to start developing primary weaponry defense system. “It starts from military equipment, including GPS, HT, mobile phone, or drone,” the President said. (FID/EN)

Translated by: Ridwan Ibadurrohman
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana