IANS, Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri Monday said her government would buy more Russian warplanes in the near future, Xinhua reports.
Megawati, who visited Moscow in April last year to sign a $192 million deal for four Sukhoi jet fighters and two Mi-35 military helicopters, said one squadron each of these aircraft would be raised soon.
“We hope that in the not too distant future, and in line with the increasing capability, we shall complement air power so that they (Shukoi and Mi-35) will respectively compose a squadron,” she said in her annual speech to the House of Representatives.
She stressed that “however great the fund that must be allocated to build and deploy a defence and security force, it must be realised that it is one of the consequences of statehood”.
The draft budget for fiscal 2005, unveiled Monday by Megawati, allots 22 trillion rupiah (around $2.4 billion) to the defence ministry.
The first arms deal with Russia sparked protests among legislators who accused the government of making the deal without their consent. The house established a committee to probe the arms deal but the Russian planes arrived here last August without further protest from legislators.
