Indonesia turns to Germany in bid to acquire Leopard 2A6 tanks

Indonesia's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has turned its attention to Germany in its bid to acquire surplus Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks (MBTs) after the Netherlands rejected a purchase proposal from Jakarta in late June.

Deputy Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said in an MoD press conference on 2 July that Indonesia was determined to procure the MBTs, but it will now cease efforts to purchase the tanks from the Netherlands. The Dutch parliament had earlier vetoed the purchase bid, citing concerns about Indonesia's human rights record.

"We have decided to focus on Germany because we have obtained certainties [from Berlin] in terms of timeliness of procurement and the number [of MBTs] to meet our requirements," said Sjamsoeddin. "We have stopped the process with the Netherlands to enable us to focus on the procurement from Germany." He added that the purchase had a budget ceiling of USD280 million: funds that would be sourced from foreign loans arranged by the Ministry of Finance.