REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Vice-President M Jusuf Kalla has said the government might postpone a plan to buy military weaponry from Brazil after it has postponed the presentation of credentials by Indonesia's ambassador-designate to the country.
"We are reconsidering our plan to purchase weapons (from Brazil)," Kalla told the press here Monday.
The bilateral relations between Brazil and Indonesia have become tense following Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's unwillingness to receive Indonesian Ambassador-designate to Brazil Toto Riyanto.
"On the same evening after the refusal, the President ordered the recall (of the ambassador-designate). I communicated with the Foreign Affairs Minister to recall (him) immediately," Kalla stated.
Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly protested the decision of the Government of Brazil to abruptly postpone the presentation of credentials by its Ambassador-designate to Brazil, Toto Riyanto, after formally inviting him to present the credentials at a ceremony in the Presidential Palace of Brazil at 9.00 a.m. (Brazilian time) on February 20, 2015.
"The manner in which the foreign minister of Brazil suddenly decided to postpone the presentation of credentials by the Indonesian Ambassador-designate to Brazil, when the Ambassador-designate was already at the palace, is unacceptable to Indonesia," said a statement on the ministry's official website on Saturday.
The Brazilian government has postponed the credential letter presentation in protest against the recent execution of a Brazilian drug offender by the Indonesian government.
Indonesia will go ahead with the implementation of the death penalty on major drug offenders, despite protests from the governments of Australia and Brazil, Kalla stated.
"We have reiterated many times that we have the sovereignty and will carry out the executions. Remember that the death penalty is based on a court verdict and not a presidential instruction," Kalla noted here Monday.
He understands the right of a country to lodge its protest against the execution of its citizen. Indonesia has also protested whenever its citizens were about to be executed in other countries, he added.
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