Indonesia-US military cooperation to focus on humanitarian acts

Jakarta - Indonesia and the US have agreed to continue making non-combat training programmes such as humanitarian operations, natural disaster handling and peace-keeping operations the focus of their cooperation.

The US has pledged to continue to organise education and training programmes for TNI personnel during 2009, despite the current global crisis, said Major General Supiadin, the operations assistant to the commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) on Jan. 20.

According to local media, Major General Supiadin had just returned from an informal US-Indonesia Bilateral Defence Dialogue (USIBDD) in Hawaii last week.

The two countries resumed their defense cooperation in 2004, which had been suspended since 1998, during the Indonesian-US Security Dialogue II in Washington DC.

At the 4 th USIBDD forum in Jakarta in 2004, the two nations agreed to set up six working groups to accommodate cooperation in the fields of intelligence, training, education, logistics, communications, science and defence technology.

At the 5 th USIBDD in Hawai, the two sides agreed to cut the number of working groups from six to four, consisting of Intelligence, Training Events, Logistics and Security Assistance, and Education and Specific Programmes working groups.-
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