Indonesia joins a four-country deal to build weapons together

Qatar, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding in Doha on 21 October, named Badr. The Qatari defence ministry says it covers cooperation in defence manufacturing, stronger military capability across the four countries, technical training, and research. It is an industrial deal, not a promise to fight for each other, which matters because a separate agreement signed in Mecca in August by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye does carry a mutual defence commitment. Ankara sent that one to its parliament for ratification on the same day.

Analysts talking to Al Jazeera describe a clear division of labour. Arda Mevlutoglu, a defence industry analyst, says Turkiye brings the technology and a mature industry that knows how to put complex systems together, Qatar brings investment and orders, and Pakistan and Indonesia bring factory capacity, skilled workers and big home markets. Albert Vidal of the International Institute for Strategic Studies says both Asian countries are willing to buy Turkish weapons and build part of them at home, which cuts costs for Turkish firms and creates jobs where the production lands. Indonesia and Turkiye are already building a tank together. Burcu Ozcelik of the Royal United Services Institute reads Badr as an attempt to pull the export and joint-production deals that already exist into one more organised hub.

The reason it is happening now is the war. Talks between the United States and Iran have not produced a deal, and governments across the region are looking past what the analysts call overreliance on Washington. Mevlutoglu cautions against calling this a break with the Americans: Qatar is not about to drop its US ties, and Turkiye wants technological independence inside NATO rather than outside it. Bader Mousa Al-Saif of Chatham House reads it as Gulf states turning more towards the Global South and other Muslim-majority countries. What shared production actually looks like is already visible in a Pakistan-Turkiye naval project, where four ships are being built, two in Istanbul and two at Karachi Shipyard.

Why it matters

For engineers, welders and shipyard towns, the question is whether this becomes work done in Indonesia or just another purchase order with a local badge on it. A memorandum costs nothing to sign, so the thing to watch is the first production contract and the address of the factory named in it. Buying from several suppliers instead of one also gives Jakarta more room when a big power attaches conditions to a weapons sale, and the analysts call that diversification a main driver of the whole thing.