Good point and well said. To counter Tiongkok pressure it is within our national interest to form economic & military balance outside both Tiongkok & US, in my eyes they are both the same in matter of pursuing their national interest. As other have said before it also include our military equipment compatibility with Nato and Japan as well. We should pursue more economic, military & technology towards the region power houses specially with South Korea and Japan. We are going in the right way so farThey are only launched not commisioned, the fitting phase is on the way at the pier side as the main dock right now being used to build another ships on the Pipeline
As i had said before, FFM 30 is a done deal project from the beginning with so many interest holder had interest in this project. Endorsed by no less MoF (who want to secure more tax from coming Investment of Japanese investor), MoD, Prime Minister of Indonesia, Indonesian Presiden himself, and SOE Minister. Japanese want to sold their major Frigates to major country like Indonesia, meanwhile Indonesian need more surface combatant warships to build up forces to face the threat from the North. Japan had conflict and severe issue against China, Indonesia doesn't trust China actually from the security point of view, we got aligned policy and goals here although both Japan and Indonesia actually one of the biggest economy partner of China. Japan had stake on their massive Investment in Indonesia, to add more Naval security of Indonesia Armed Forces along with solid Defense relationship is win win solution for both countries.