China and Indonesia revive Sharp Knife army counter-terror training with a drill in Guangdong

China's defence ministry announced on Monday, 26 October, that Chinese and Indonesian army troops will hold a joint counter-terrorism training event called Sharp Knife-2026 in Guangdong province from late October to early November. Taiwan's United Daily News reported the announcement the same day, citing the ministry's official social media account. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV carried the same notice on its military news channel.

According to the Chinese ministry's account, the training is built around a joint counter-terrorism rescue operation in mountain terrain. The ministry listed mountain climbing, special driving, helicopter fast-roping, close-quarters assault and manned-unmanned teaming among the planned subjects. Neither report gave the number of troops taking part, the units involved or the exact location in Guangdong.

Beijing described the event as the third army training in the Sharp Knife series between the two militaries. It also said the drill would deepen practical exchanges between the two armed forces and improve their ability to operate together. Those are China's own characterisations of the drill's purpose and have not been independently assessed. No Indonesian statement on the training had appeared by the time of publication.

The United Daily News report recalled that China and Indonesia held their first Sharp Knife special forces training in Bandung, Indonesia, in 2011, and a counter-terrorism edition in Jinan, in China's Shandong province, in 2012. The two sides also held airborne versions of the series in 2013 and 2014, the paper said, citing earlier Chinese official material.

In a commentary published by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore in September, analyst Ian Seow Cheng Wei wrote that the Sharp Knife series was suspended in 2015. He tied the long gap in larger bilateral drills to Indonesian concern over Chinese activity in the North Natuna Sea, where Indonesian authorities seized and destroyed Chinese fishing boats under former president Joko Widodo. The commentary noted a naval exercise in 2021, a disaster relief exercise called Heping Garuda in December 2024 and a naval passing exercise in August 2026.

The same commentary said earlier Sharp Knife drills were small, involving roughly 50 to 80 personnel, and focused on counter-terrorism and search and rescue rather than conventional combat. It contrasted them with the Super Garuda Shield exercise Indonesia holds with the United States, whose 2026 edition drew 4,743 troops from 21 countries. It also cited Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data showing that Indonesia sourced just 3 percent of its military imports from China between 2000 and 2025.

The revived drill follows a meeting in Beijing on 17 September between Indonesian Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and Zhang Shengmin, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, on the sidelines of the Xiangshan Forum. Indonesia's defence ministry said the two sides discussed setting up working groups on four lines of cooperation, including defence equipment and logistics, wider joint exercises, training and technology transfer, and the exchange of strategic information. The ministry said all defence cooperation with China rests on Indonesia's free and active, non-aligned foreign policy.

The United Daily News also noted that a Chinese military detachment took part in an ADMM-Plus field exercise held in Indonesia from 22 to 25 September, which focused on earthquake response, rubble search and rescue, and field medical care. Indonesia sits beside the Malacca Strait, which the RSIS commentary described as a strategic vulnerability for China because most of its energy imports pass through it.