Indonesia and the Czech Republic Tuesday agreed on bilateral defense cooperation, in the forms of the exchange of student officers, defense information and transfer of technology and data, a top Indonesian military official said.

The agreement with the eastern European nation was reached a week after Indonesia agreed to purchase weaponry from Russia worth 1 billion U.S. dollars.

Lieutenant General Syafrie Syamsuddin, secretary general of Indonesia's defense ministry said that Indonesia planned to purchase several jet training from Czech in an effort to eliminate some burden in training pilots.

Nevertheless, he did not elaborate how much Indonesia would allocate budget to buy the Czech military equipment.

The two countries will set up a joint committee comprising top military officers from both sides to handle all military deals, said Syamsuddin.

Over three decades Indonesia had mostly depended on the United States for the weaponry and military assistance.

Source: Xinhua