Indonesia has ditched a controversial plan to buy 733 million euros ($790 million) worth of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets previously used by Qatar, the defence ministry spokesperson said late on Saturday.
Fighter military aircraft Dassault Mirage 2000 © Mena Today
Indonesia has ditched a controversial plan to buy 733 million euros ($790 million) worth of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets previously used by Qatar, the defence ministry spokesperson said late on Saturday.
"There is no purchase of Mirage jets. Even though it was planned, it has been cancelled ... meaning there is no active contract," spokesperson Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said in a statement, but did not elaborate.
Last month, the ministry said the deal to purchase the 12 fighter jets was delayed due to fiscal constraints and that the military would order a retrofit for its existing Sukhoi and F-16 aircraft instead.
The planned purchase garnered controversy when it was announced last year, as lawmakers said the secondhand jets were old.
Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, the frontrunner to win Indonesia's presidential election on Feb. 14, has been criticised about the deal by rival candidates during campaigning.
But he defended the purchase during one of the presidential debates, saying the secondhand jets were still good for another 15 years and were needed while the country waits for its new jets to arrive.
Prabowo has overseen the military's efforts to modernise its ageing fleet, which include purchases of Rafale fighter jets, drones from Turkish Aerospace and fighter jets and transport helicopters from U.S. companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
($1 = 0.9275 euros)
Reporting by Ananda Teresia
A senior White House official on Thursday said nuclear-armed Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets well beyond South Asia, making it an "emerging threat" to the United States.
Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) but instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Nordic country's aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, told Swedish broadcaster TV4 on Friday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday called for the eradication of terrorist groups operating in Syria, specifically naming the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.