Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry has warned the Defence Ministry in a 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.
The letter, marked as urgent and confidential, was delivered in early April ahead of a meeting of Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington on Monday, according to two Indonesian sources with knowledge of the matter.
The letter has not been previously reported and it urged the Defence Ministry to delay any final agreement with Washington.
A Pentagon statement that followed the meeting said the two countries established a major defence cooperation partnership and listed a number of ways in which the two countries would build defence ties, but did not refer to overflights. Reuters
