Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto recently met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron for some talks on defense cooperation, among others, in Brazil. 

The two leaders were in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 Summit. Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto revealed that Macron had praised Indonesia’s plan to procure military equipment, including Rafale’s fighter jets. The talks also touched on cooperation related to submarines. However, Airlangga did not reveal the details on the latest progress of Indonesia’s cooperation with France in regards to equipping land-based military forces. 

Indonesia has picked French military shipbuilding company Naval Group to supply two Scorpène submarines that will be built in Indonesia. Naval Group will help the state-owned shipbuilder PAL build the submarines in Indonesia through a transfer of technology. 

The Defense Ministry has completed the purchase of 42 Rafale fighter jets from French military aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation. Those purchases came in three orders, with the last one covering 18 fighter jets. Indonesia already completed the first two contracts in 2022 and 2023, respectively. There were six units in the first tranche, followed by 18 Rafale jets in the second contract. The first Rafale aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia in early 2026.

According to Airlangga, the talks also touched on economic cooperation as the two countries recently held its bilateral business forum. 

“President Macron wants us to continue this bilateral business forum,” Airlangga said. 

Both countries recently held its Indonesia-France Business Forum which resulted in some deals involving Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). For instance, the renewable energy and geothermal units of the state-run energy firm Pertamina signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with green hydrogen company Genvia. The partnership revolved around conducting studies on using Genvia’s technology to reduce energy consumption in green hydrogen production. The study is set to take place in one of Pertamina Geothermal Energy’s sites.