Traditionally non-aligned, Indonesia used to balance its acquisitions of defense equipment between different blocs. During the Cold War, like India, the Jakarta air forces thus jointly flew Soviet Mig 19 and Mig 21 alongside American A4 Skyhawks, and this situation continued after the fall of the Soviet Union, by changing set of Russian Su-27 and Su-30 and American F16. But this type of “intermediate” positioning no longer suits Washington.
Since his arrival at the White House, Donald Trump has clearly undertaken to reconstruct a block structure on the planet, with on one side the block articulated around the United States, and on the other that structured around the Sino-Russian couple. . And to force countries to make this choice, he promulgated, in 2017, CATSAA legislation, which threatens any country acquiring Russian or Chinese defense equipment with sanctions, which can range from the suspension of export authorizations for American defense equipment, to severe economic sanctions.
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[…] Jakarta and Moscow on terms of payment, only to be canceled outright after US CAATSA legislation came into effect. But this was also the case regarding the Indonesian participation in the KF-21 program […]