JAKARTA: Indonesia has received three Rafale fighter jets from France in the first deliveries from a multi-billion-dollar defense deal between the two countries, a defense ministry official told Reuters on Monday, marking a major upgrade to the country’s aging military hardware.
Jakarta, France’s main arms client in Southeast Asia, has placed orders for as many as 42 Rafales, built by Dassault Aviation, as well as French frigates and submarines, as the archipelago steps up defense spending under President Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander. “The aircraft have been handed over and are ready for use by the Indonesian Air Force,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait said in a message in response to a Reuters query — the first confirmation that Indonesia has possession of the advanced military aircraft after striking an $8 billion deal with France in 2022 and expanding it last year.
Sirait said the three aircraft arrived on Friday and were stationed at Roesmin Nurjadin Air Base in Pekanbaru, located on the western island of Sumatra.
Three more jets are expected to arrive later this year, he added.
Indonesia has been one of the biggest players on the international fighter jet market as it looks to upgrade its aircraft, setting aside big budgets for defense spending. It has been considering a number of options alongside the Rafales, including China’s J-10 fighter jets and US-made F-15EX jets. For the longer term, it has also signed a contract to buy 48 KAAN fighter jets from Turkiye, a fifth-generation aircraft powered by General Electric F-110 engines that are also used in fourth-generation Lockheed Martin F-16 jets. Reuters also reported that Indonesia and Pakistan discussed a potential deal earlier this month for Jakarta to buy combat jets and killer drones.
Indonesia receives first Rafale advanced fighter jets from France
https://arab.news/peztj
Indonesia receives first Rafale advanced fighter jets from France
- Three more jets are expected to arrive later this year
Trump says he asked Putin not to target Kyiv for 1 week during brutal cold spell
- “I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this ... extraordinary cold,” Trump said
- Zelensky, for his part, thanked Trump for his effort and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause
KYIV: US President Donald Trump said Thursday that President Vladimir Putin has agreed not to target the Ukrainian capital and other towns for one week as the region experiences frigid temperatures.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin that Putin has agreed to such a pause.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, hoping to wear down public resistance to the war while leaving many around the country having to endure the dead of winter without heat.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this ... extraordinary cold,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, adding that Putin has “agreed to that.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked earlier Thursday whether a mutual halt on strikes on energy facilities was being discussed between Russia and Ukraine, and he refused to comment on the issue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Wednesday had warned that Moscow was planning another large-scale barrage despite plans for further US-brokered peace talks at the weekend.
Trump said he was pleased that Putin has agreed to the pause. Kyiv, which has grappled with severe power shortages this winter, is forecast to enter a brutally cold stretch starting Friday that is expected to last into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), the State Emergency Service warned.
“A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call. You’re not going to get that.’” the Republican US president said of his request of Putin. “And he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it.”
Zelensky, for his part, thanked Trump for his effort and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause in Russian military action on Kyiv and beyond. “Power supply is a foundation of life,” Zelensky said in his social media post.
Trump did not say when the call with Putin took place or when the ceasefire would go into effect. The White House did not immediately respond to a query seeking clarity about the scope and timing of the limited pause in the nearly four-year war.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water over the course of the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.
The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine — 31 percent higher than in 2024, it said.
