Indonesia urges caution over U.S. military overflight proposal

Indonesia's foreign ministry warned the defence ministry in an early-April letter that an American proposal to give its military "blanket" permission to fly over Indonesian territory risked entangling Jakarta in potential South China Sea conflicts, sources said.



While the two nations agreed on a defence cooperation partnership in a meeting on Monday, a Pentagon statement that followed it made no reference to overflights, although two Indonesian sources said the U.S. proposal had previously been slated to be signed there.



The foreign ministry's letter - which has not been previously reported - was marked as urgent and confidential. It was delivered ahead of the meeting between Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington, the two Indonesian sources said.



In its letter the ministry urged the defence ministry to delay any final agreement with Washington. It is not clear if Hegseth and Sjafrie in fact discussed the overflight proposal.



In its statement the Pentagon said the two countries had established a major defence cooperation partnership and listed a number of ways in which they would build defence ties.