Indonesia's air force is expected to hold its largest military exercise in some of its island near in the South China Sea this week.
This is to show of sovereignty over the gas-rich area on the fringe of its territory that China is claiming.
President Joko Widodo recently launched a campaign last June to bolster fishing, oil exploration and defense facilities around the Natuna island chain after a series of face-offs between the Indonesian navy and Chinese fishing boats.
Indonesian raised anger to China because of its continuous claims to the Natuna islands by saying the two countries had "over-lapping claims" to waters near them, an area in Indonesia.
According to Jemu Trisonjaya the spokesperson for Indonesia's air force that they wanted to show existence in the area for the reason that they have a good enough air force to act as a deterrent.
Trisonjaya added that there are more than 2,000 air force personnel were involved and took theor part of the two-week long exercise, which includes the deployment of Indonesia's fleet of Russian Sukhoi and F-16 fighter jets.
