Jordan offers military equipment to Indonesia

Jordan is planning to sell and donate some of its warships and weapons to Indonesia, Indonesian news agency ANTARA said Wednesday, qutoing defence minister Mahfud MD.

"It (Jordan) has yet to decide which of its equipment will be sold or donated. But a Jordanian delegation is expected to arrive here next month to discuss the matter," he told the press following a meeting with Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He said he warmly welcomed the Jordanian offer in light of a continuing US arms embargo on Indonesia.

"The US arms embargo has almost paralyzed our weaponary," he said.

He said Indonesia would no longer depend on the United States for arms supplies because, apart from Jordan, many other countries were prepared to sell weapons to Jakarta.

A French firm was even ready to sell weapons to Indonesia in return for licences to conduct marine resources exploration. "Maybe they know we don't have much money," he said. But it now seemed the United States was becoming aware that its arms embargo on Indonesia was fruitless, the minister added.

Washington froze military ties with Indonesia to protest the killing of hundreds of East Timorese in the wake of the UN-administered ballot which led to the territory's secession from the unitary Republic of Indonesia.

For decades the United States had had close ties with the Indonesian military, partly to help maintain stability in the scattered, strategically placed archipelago which faced threats of communist subversion during the Cold War.

But those ties soured in the waning years of former president Soeharto's army-backed and autocratic rule which ended in May 1998 amid massive pro-democracy demonstrations and civil unrest.