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Indonesia rejects US request to let spy planes land, avoiding taking sides in US-China tensions
- The US has used bases in Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia to operate P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance flights over the South China Sea
- Indonesia has never allowed foreign militaries to operate there, and analysts say Washington’s aggressive anti-China policy has unnerved the region
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Indonesia rejected a proposal by the United States to allow its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to land and refuel there, according to four senior Indonesian officials familiar with the matter.
US officials made multiple “high-level” approaches in July and August to Indonesia’s defence and foreign ministers before Indonesian President Joko Widodo rebuffed the request, the officials said.
Representatives for Indonesia’s president and defence minister, the US State Department press office and the US embassy in Jakarta did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for the US Department of Defence and Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi declined to comment.
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The proposition, which came as the US and China escalated their contest for influence in Southeast Asia, surprised Indonesia’s government, the officials said, because Indonesia has a long-standing policy of foreign policy neutrality. The country has never allowed foreign militaries to operate there.
The P-8 plays a central role in keeping an eye on China’s military activity in the South China Sea, most of which Beijing claims as sovereign territory. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei have rival claims to the resource-rich waters, through which US$3 trillion worth of trade passes each year.
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