India, April 19 -- On 13 April, Indonesian Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin flew to Washington to meet US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. Two Indonesian government sources say the meeting was meant to include the signing of an overflight arrangement that would have granted American military aircraft broad, notification-based access through Indonesian airspace, effectively replacing the country's existing system of case-by-case authorisation for foreign military flights.

The signing did not happen.

Four days earlier, on 12 April, The Sunday Guardian had published a report which was based on a classified US defence document. The document proposed that Indonesia authorise blanket transit clearance for US military air...