Sawt Falasteen - China, Indonesia hold talks on security, defence

The talks marked "an important milestone in our bilateral relations," Indonesia's foreign minister Sugiono, who goes by one name, said as he welcomed Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

"It serves as a forward-looking strategic platform, guiding our bilateral partnership across all five pillars -- political, economic, maritime, people-to-people, and security."

Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, what it calls "free and active" -- walking a diplomatic tightrope between Beijing and Washington.

Earlier this month, Jakarta and Beijing raised the ire of Taiwan with a joint navy drill off the democratic island's east coast.

The two countries said it was a "passing exercise" with an Indonesian frigate passing through on its return home from the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

Taiwan called it a "military provocation" from the Chinese Communist Party.

Wang said Friday it was crucial for Beijing and Jakarta to "increase strategic communication, to deepen strategic coordination" as important representatives of the Global South.

"Today's world is fluid and turbulent," he said in translated remarks provided by Indonesia's foreign ministry.

"We are seeing unilateralism and hegemonism. They have dealt a heavy blow to this world as well as to the global development agenda."

On the agenda for Friday was the inaugural meeting of what is being called a "China-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue Mechanism".

Among other things, it is meant to boost "the alignment of development strategies", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters ahead of Wang's visit.

Wang would later be joined by Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in talks with Indonesia on "political security and defence cooperation and international and regional situations", according to Beijing.

Last year, Jakarta joined the BRICS bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia and China.

But President Prabowo Subianto has also signed a trade deal with US President Donald Trump and joined his so-called "Board of Peace".

International relations researcher Pieter Pandie of the CSIS think tank told AFP that Jakarta still leaned "much more" towards Washington than Beijing.

"From the security and defence side of things, the Indonesia-China relationship is still very much less developed... compared with Indonesia's security cooperation with other Western and Asian partners," he said.

"I wouldn't look too much into whether or not (Friday's meeting) signals some sort of 'realignment' for Indonesia towards Beijing," added Pandie.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST