BLUF

Indonesia’s Defence Ministry appears to have been the big winner in this year’s negotiations on the 2023 budget—but at least one prominent Indonesian defence commentator says more needs to be spent on defence.

Summary

This article by David Engel, writing for ASPI, makes the following points:
  • The government’s budget announcement in September leaves Indonesia no closer to having a military capable of wielding a ‘minimum essential force’ (MEF) by 2024.
  • The allocation was less than half of the more than $32 billion that Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and his senior military officers had proposed.
  • On its current trajectory, Indonesia will not be transformed into the powerful nation envisaged in President Joko Widodo’s 2016 defence white paper.

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