Newsletter No. 311
News-Analysis
June 18, 2006

 

TOKYO PROVIDES PATROL BOATS TO INDONESIA

On the 15th, Tokyo and Jakarta finally agreed to terms by which three bulletproof patrol boats would be sold to Indonesia in order to beef-up anti-piracy efforts in the Malacca Straits. The road to this point has been a rather windy one.

The idea was floated on June 2, 2005, when Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last visited Japan, and he and Prime Minister Koizumi issued the “Japan-Indonesia Joint Announcement on Maritime Affairs,” which read, in part: “Recognizing the importance of the Straits of Malacca as an important sea lane of communications, the two leaders expressed their desire to strengthen cooperation in a comprehensive approach encompassing safety of navigation, marine environment and maritime security. Such approach to maritime security would cover, among others, security against piracy, armed robbery against ships and smuggling (arms, goods, persons, drugs etc.). The two leaders believed that this cooperation could further promote the development of neighborly and friendly relationship between the two countries and attached particular importance to active cooperation and support by User States to enhancing the capacity of the maritime law enforcement authorities of the littoral states by seriously considering provision of patrol boats and other cooperation.”

Two weeks before this joint announcement, a Japanese team had already arrived in Indonesia to determine what kind of patrol boats were needed there. In mid-June, just after the announcement, the 5,200 ton Yashima was sent by the Japanese government to Jakarta to begin joint training exercises with the Indonesian military.

However, by January 2006, some tensions in Japan-Indonesia relations had surfaced in public. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla openly criticized Japan’s aid policies and asserted that Jakarta would make no deals with Tokyo that were not entirely in the national interests of Indonesia. Departing Ambassador Abdul Irsan also warned in April that, “Japan’s policy of siding with the United States globally and regionally may cause a situation in which the position of Indonesia and that of Japan can hardly be synchronized.”

Last month, the Shizuoka Prefectural Government decided against selling the Techno-Super Liner Kibo to Jakarta, out of fear that it would violate Japan’s export control laws. This was a civilian liner, but it was felt that it could easily be converted to military purposes. Apparently, communication between the central government and the Shizuoka government was not very strong.

On the 24th of last month, Tokyo’s new ambassador to Jakarta, Shin Ebihara, paid a visit to Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono. At the time, the media did not report the substance of the talks, but now we can assume that the main item in their discussion was the supply of these bulletproof patrol boats to the Indonesian military.

The signing ceremony was set for June 14th, but at the last minute the Indonesian side pulled back and announced that they “could not accept condition-attached grant aid.” Tokyo was delivering the ships under the condition that they be used only for specified purposes once in Indonesian hands. Jakarta suddenly balked.

In negotiations the next day, however, they reached some kind of agreement, and the papers were signed.

What happened at that last moment? The press is silent. But we can offer here an educated guess:

Perhaps the agreement for the provision of the patrol boats was negotiated primarily by the Indonesian Defense Ministry, but when they belatedly forwarded the text of the agreement to the offices of the Vice-President and/or the Minister of National Development Planning, they were annoyed to discover the conditions that infringed on Indonesia’s sovereign freedom of action, and that this implied Japanese condescension to them. The Defense Ministry did not anticipate these objections, and it led to confusion on the 14th. The next day, with the touchy civilian politicians on board, an acceptable compromise was reached.

That scenario seems to fit the known facts, but whether or not it is actually the truth remains to be seen.

One issue of controversy on the Japanese side is the fact that bulletproof boats are considered to be weapons under Japanese law, and Tokyo has traditionally refrained from arms exportation. Also, this is the first time that an ODA framework has been used to provide arms.

Reuters reports that Japan began a partial ban on arms exports in 1967, and then extended this to a complete ban in 1976. However, in 1983 this ban was relaxed in order to allow military technology transfers to the United States only. In December 2004, there was a further relaxation when it was announced that Tokyo would consider a case-by-case to other countries if related to anti-terrorism or anti-piracy measures.

We have now witnessed the first major implementation of this new policy.