First China, now France: How Indonesia is boosting fighter jet Arsenal amid Indo-Pacific tensions

Indonesia is not choosing sides, it's choosing leverage. In a bold geopolitical play, Jakarta hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang and French President Emmanuel Macron within just days of each other. The message? Indonesia isn’t here to pick a camp. It’s here to cut deals. From reportedly securing 42 Chinese J-10 fighter jets to finalizing a new French order of Rafales, Indonesia is on a defence shopping spree like no other. But is this sustainable? Can Indonesia balance two rival powers like Russia and France without slipping? And how does this reflect a larger shift in how some countries view China compared to the West? As the Indo-Pacific becomes the global battleground for influence, Indonesia’s strategy of non-alignment, economic cooperation, and strategic ambiguity is turning heads. In this episode of Grey Zone, Ananya Dutta unpacks why Indonesia matters more than ever and how it's gaming the system to become the region’s ultimate swing state.