Indonesia, Ukraine to Set Up Deffense Cooperation

Seoul - The governments of Indonesia and Ukraine have agreed to establish defense cooperation, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said here on Wednesday. "Ukraine has a fairly strong defense industry and that we need to establish a cooperation with the country in accordance with the needs of our nation and the existing regulations," Marty noted. According to him, the cooperation agreement between Indonesia and Ukraine was discussed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Ukrainian counterpart Victor Yanukovych at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul on March 27. Marty explained that in every defense cooperation with other countries, Indonesia did not just want to buy and sell military equipment but also wanted to ensure the sustainability of cooperation in the defense industry and technology. He added that apart from the Ukrainian head of state, President Yudhoyono also held a series of bilateral meeting with British deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. (*)