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By APD Writer Maverick
JAKARTA, Aug. 22 (APD) — Indonesia allocated 1.14 billion U.S. Dollars to acquire 11 units of Sukhoi 35 fighter jets whose payment would be combined with cash and commodities, Indonesia Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said here on Tuesday.
Commodities involved in the transactions to buy the fighter jets from Russia would consist of processed rubber goods, palm oil, coffee, cacao, textile, processed fish, processed coconut, spices
and aircraft components, the minister said.
“Through this scheme, the export value of commodities related to the purchase of Sukhoi 35 fighter jets from Russia was 570 million U.S. Dollars,” the minister told a press conference here, referring to value of counter trade used in the plane purchase.
The agreement on the purchase scheme was formulated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by officials of Indonesia’s state-run trade firm of PT PPI and Russian agency of Rostec recently on August 10, the minister said.
He added that discussions on details on the kind of commodities, volume and the shipping of those Indonesian goods to Russia were still underway at present.
Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, who was at presence in the session, said negotiations and coordinations with Russian governments and agencies to acquire the Sukhoi 35 fighter jets have been conducted in the last two years.
He said Indonesian delegation managed to lower the price offered by Russian side from 150 million U.S. Dollars per unit to 90 million and 70 million U.S. Dollars, depended on the plane’s specification.
Delivery of the planes was expected to be conducted gradually in two years.
Sukhoi 35 is an advanced flanker-family 4.5 generation fighter jet developed by Russian plane maker Sukhoi. The fighter jet has the air superiority characteristic, effective to carry out any kind of mission for the air forces.
Indonesia would use Sukhoi 35 fighter jets to replace the ageing F-5 E/F Tiger II fighter jets which already in service with Indonesian air forces since 1980s.
In Indonesia the Sukhoi 35 would eventually join 11 Sukhoi 30 and 5 Sukhoi 27 fighter jets now serving in Indonesian air forces fleet.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
