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Prabowo strengthens defense collaboration with UAE president
Prabowo in his capacity as Indonesian defense minister has in recent years boosted security cooperation with the Gulf nation. Prabowo revealed last year that his team was negotiating with the UAE for the procurement of several used Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets.
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Defense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto (left) meets
with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on May 13, 2024, at Al Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi. The bilateral talks focused on defense cooperation. (Courtesy of the Defense Ministry/-)
O
n the first stopover of his nearly week-long Middle East tour, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto met United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, popularly known as MBZ, on Tuesday to discuss, among other issues, strengthening of the two countries’ security cooperation amid an increasingly complicated geopolitical landscape.
Defense and “several possible avenues for [security] cooperation”, according to official releases, were a major topic of discussion during the closed-door talks between MBZ and Prabowo, the latter being slated to take on Indonesia’s top office in October.
“I hope that the relationship between Indonesia and the UAE will continue to develop, in line with the countries’ ambition to strengthen cooperation in various fields, including defense,” Prabowo said after the talks.
While details of the discussions remain undisclosed, Prabowo in his capacity as Indonesian defense minister has in recent years boosted security cooperation with the Gulf nation. Prabowo revealed last year that his team was negotiating with the UAE for the procurement of several used Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets.
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In 2022, Prabowo also signed the Indonesia-UAE bilateral memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation, which outlined several protocols for collaboration including industrial planning strategies, joint research and development programs, defense technology licenses and human resource development.
As the UAE has recently industrialized its defense sector, Prabowo said at the time that synergy between both countries was “very important for their future industrial development”.