An Indonesian Navy frigate briefly joined a passing exercise with a Chinese warship off Taiwan’s east coast on August 12, drawing a sharp condemnation from Taipei and highlighting intensifying geopolitical pressures on Jakarta’s nonaligned foreign policy.
An Unscheduled Encounter Off Taiwan’s Coast
On August 12, the Indonesian Navy frigate KRI I Gusti Ngurah Rai joined the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) guided-missile frigate Honghe for a maneuver in waters east of Taiwan. Jakarta described the interaction as a passing exercise
that took place while Taiwan conducted its annual Han Kuang military drill.
The location of the drill immediately drew scrutiny from Taipei. An Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson acknowledged that the exercise’s position made it particularly sensitive,
but stressed that the vessel’s presence was simply part of its transit route back to Indonesia.
According to the Taipei Times, the Indonesian warship was returning home from Vladivostok, Russia, after completing a naval exercise with the Russian navy.
The Indonesian Navy stated that its activities with the Chinese fleet were not warfighting activities in nature
and not intended as combat training.
However, the announcement by Beijing’s state-run Global Times paired the upcoming drill with footage of the Honghe engaging in a tense, 20-hour standoff with a larger foreign warship near the Taiwan Strait earlier in the year.
Taipei Condemns Beijing Over Sovereignty Signals
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) responded swiftly, issuing a sharp condemnation of what it termed a Chinese Communist Party military provocation. The agency argued that the timing and placement of the drill were designed to send a political message rather than serve tactical naval needs.
This move is, in reality…
Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan
The MAC also criticized broader maritime maneuvers by Beijing in the Western Pacific, pointing to recent China Coast Guard patrols that radioed cargo ships for crew and destination details. Those operations coincided with traffic control measures announced by the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration for the Taiwan Strait as Typhoon Dolphin approached the region, orders that Taipei labeled a trampling of the international order and norms.
Analysts weighed in on the tactical weight of the exercise itself. Ying-Yu Lin, an associate professor at Taiwan’s Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, observed that the maneuver carried minimal operational significance. Lin noted that the event functioned primarily as a symbolic claim of capability by Beijing rather than a practical joint drill.
Navigating Superpower Pressures in Jakarta
For decades, Indonesia has maintained a free and active
foreign policy, deliberately avoiding formal alignment with either Washington or Beijing. Yet the latest naval episode underscores the growing difficulty of maintaining that neutral stance as both superpowers vie for influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The timing of the drill added to the geopolitical friction. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto met with Elbridge Colby, a United States undersecretary of defense, in Jakarta on the exact same day as the passing exercise with China. At the same time, Jakarta maintains economic and diplomatic ties with Beijing, reflecting a diplomatic balancing act that includes accepting US requests for blanket military overflights while pursuing restarted bilateral naval drills with China.
Those bilateral drills carry historical baggage. Joint exercises known as Sharp Knife were suspended around 2015 following friction over illegal Chinese fishing near the Natuna Islands, an area Jakarta considers its own but where Beijing claims historic fishing rights. Maritime cooperation only resumed in 2021, and interest picked up after Prabowo met China’s foreign minister to discuss further joint exercises.
Ratih Kabinawa, a visiting research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, argued that Indonesia should have anticipated Taipei’s reaction regardless of the drill’s low operational level.
