The Governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Federal Republic of Indonesia have signed letter of intent to deepen bilateral defence cooperation.
The brief signing ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Ship House Abuja.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, mni represented the Minister of Defence Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi(rtd) CFR and signed for Nigeria while the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Hustra Harahap signed for Indonesia.
The objective of the letter of intent according to the parties is aimed at promoting defence cooperation in accordance with the prevailing laws and regulation of the two countries.
They affirmed to maintain principle of mutual respect, fairness and reciprocity.
The areas of cooperation contained in the letter of intent include, exchange of high ranking operational officials, promotion of education and training as well as promotion of defence industries and intelligence sharing.
The signing of the letter of intent which has articles one to three opened a new vitsa of hope in strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries as explained by the Permanent Secretary Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar Kana,mni.
Dr Kana assured the 5 -man Indonesian delegation that Nigeria is poised to drive the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between the two countries.
The Permanent Secretary said the long history of robust relationship between Nigeria and Indonesia with common areas of interests as members of G-30 and G-8 countries suffice to promote a win-win deal.
The Indonesia Ambassador to Nigeria Dr Hustra Harahap thanked the Minister of Defence for the platform provided to sign the letter of intent.
He assured Nigeria of his country’s total commitment to abide by the articles contained in the signed document.
The ceremony was witnessed on the sideline by the Director Joint Services Department Ministry of Defence, Olu Mustapha, her counterparts in the Medical, Dr Olajide Johnson, Press, Victoria Agba-atta and the Special Adviser Technical Major General Ahmed Tijani Jibrin (rtd).
In the samevein the Indonesian Ambassador’s team included the Defence Attache, Colonel Otlow Resalino, the Minister Counsellor,Mrs Tuty Dityawanty, the Chancery Fahmi Aris and the Secretary Defence Attache Farouk Hashim.
