The US Department of Defense plans to enhance Indonesia’s cyber and space capabilities as part of a bilateral defense agreement with the Asia-Pacific country.
The potential partnership aligns with America’s ongoing commitment to sustain the security and freedom of allied nations in Southeast Asia.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strategy would include continuous training in digital domain missions to boost the Indonesian government’s vulnerabilities against cyber threats.
Applications will be gradually explored to recognize and produce tools for cybersecurity objectives.
“As we train with allies and partners, we want to make sure that we’re helping them bring their capabilities along as well,” Austin explained during a visit to Jakarta Thursday.
“They won’t all be in the same place as we are obviously but we can begin to help them understand the value of having capability in these domains and develop those capabilities.”
“Cyber is one of those areas where you don’t have to be an enormous country with a significant inventory of armament. You can bring capability to the table in the cyber domain even if you’re a smaller country with limited capability.”
Advancing in Space
Austin added that there are several space-related initiatives with Indonesia, and allied countries in the region intend to join.
“In space, I mean, there’s a lot of development that needs to happen going forward but certainly, countries are interested in sharing, they’re interested in learning more about what they would need to do in order to develop a capability,” Austin stated.
“When you talk about space, none of that capability is cheap, but there are opportunities for countries to partner with us, to work with each other and develop nascent capabilities.”
Although the secretary teased possible cyber and space domain projects with the country, Austin did not reveal specifics on future military exercises, training programs, and contracts associated with the potential collaboration with Jakarta.
