Japan doubles its security aid, and Indonesia is on the list

Japan is putting much more money into giving military equipment to friendly countries, and Indonesia is one of the places it is looking at. The South China Morning Post, running a Kyodo News report, says Tokyo has set aside 18.1 billion yen, about $114 million, for the programme this financial year, more than double the roughly 8 billion yen it spent last year. The number of countries getting help will grow from eight to at least 12.

The programme is called Official Security Assistance. It sends equipment to the armed forces of partner countries, but only gear that Japanese law does not count as a weapon made to kill or destroy. In practice that has meant patrol boats and coastal radar: tools for watching your own sea, not for fighting in it. Indonesia is named among the countries being considered, along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Palau. Kenya and Cambodia are in the plan too. The report comes from people familiar with the matter, so no Indonesian package has been agreed yet.

Tokyo's reason is straightforward. It wants the countries around it to be able to see what moves through their own waters, at a time when it is uneasy about China's growing activity across the Indo-Pacific. That leaves Jakarta in an odd position this month. Indonesia has been discussing joint exercises and defence technology with Beijing, and now sits on a Japanese list drawn up partly to balance Beijing. Both offers are open at the same time, and neither side is asking Indonesia to choose in public.

Why it matters

Indonesia has more sea than it can watch, and radar or boats it does not pay for would go to the coast guard and the navy that patrol fishing grounds and shipping lanes. Watch whether Jakarta actually appears in the final list of 12, because being considered is not the same as being funded. The wider point is that Indonesia can take equipment from Tokyo and from Beijing in the same season, which is comfortable while both are competing and awkward the moment one of them starts keeping score.