The former commander-in-chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), General Gatot Nurmantyo, was conferred Singapore's highest military award for his "significant contributions towards strengthening the close and longstanding defence relations" between TNI and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), said Mindef in a statement yesterday. He was awarded the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (Tentera), or the Distinguished Service Order (Military), by President Halimah Yacob at the Istana yesterday.

Mindef added that under his leadership from July 2015 to December last year, cooperation between the two armed forces made good progress, maintaining a high tempo of bilateral exercises, such as Exercise Safkar Indopura, Exercise Eagle Indopura and Exercise Elang Indopura. The SAF-TNI Counter-Terrorism Table-Top Exercise was also conducted last year. Gen Gatot, 57, reviewed a guard of honour at the Istana before the investiture, and called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong afterwards. He also met Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen and the Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Perry Lim, at the Ministry of Defence.