Singapore (Antara) - Indonesia plans to increase its defense budget to catch up with the progress in line with the increasing economic growth, defense minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said. The government and the House of Representatives have already agreed to increase the budget, he said at the 12th high-level defense meeting here on Saturday. "I am convinced the budget will be maintained or even possibly be increased in the years to come," he said. He said the military budget has so far been less prioritized with its allocation set below one percent of the gross domestic product on average in the past ten years following an economic crisis and in 2001 military spending only reached 0.60 percent of the national budget. "As a result gap occurs with regard to meeting the basic needs of the force and this has been our challenge," he said. Minister Purnomo spoke in the third session of "the Shangri-La Dialog" themed "Modernizing The Military and Strategic Transparency" along with Australia defense minister Stephen Smith and British state minister of defense Philip Hammond. In the meeting until June 2 Purnomo explained about military modernization in the context of national reform as as part of national development and strategic transparency. "In Indonesia military modernization is a key element in military reform as part of national reform sine 1998," he said. (*)


Editor : Tunggul Susilo
COPYRIGHT © ANTARA 2026

Dilarang keras mengambil konten, melakukan crawling atau pengindeksan otomatis untuk AI di situs web ini tanpa izin tertulis dari Kantor Berita ANTARA.