JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gov. Linda Lingle arrived in Indonesia today, seeking a powerful new ally in Southeast Asia and insights on how to respond to disasters from officials who have recent, hands-on experience with tsunamis, floods, earthquakes and avian flu outbreaks.

In sit-downs with the vice president of Indonesia and other top leaders, Lingle will also push the idea of Indonesia as a safety net for Hawai'i — a Plan B source of disaster relief if the Mainland is unable to respond immediately.

Though the scenario is remote, officials say, it is not impossible.

"I think we'll learn to what extent that is possible once we get there," Lingle said. "But they are certainly a country of tremendous resources. A lot of our oil comes from Indonesia."

The trip, punctuated by the signing of an official partnership between the Hawai'i National Guard and Indonesian military, comes as the Bush administration is increasingly anxious to strengthen its relationship with Indonesia, a budding democracy with the world's largest Muslim population and a growing interest in getting involved on the international stage.

Indonesia recently sent a small peacekeeping force to Lebanon, and expressed interest in working to quell violence in Iraq.

The country has also gained Western favor with a series of raids to root out homegrown and al-Qaida terrorist cells.

INTERNAL TENSIONS

The increased police work came in the wake of two deadly bombings meant to target foreigners. An explosion at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta four years ago killed 12 people, while a bomb blast at a Bali nightclub a year earlier left 202 people dead, most young Australians.

The incidents spurred the U.S. State Department to issue a travel warning still in effect for Indonesia, urging Americans to be aware of the risks before traveling to that country.

Though Indonesia is making strides against terrorism, the State Department has noted in briefings that there are rising tensions between Muslims and Christian minorities in rural areas and fundamentalist Islamic factions critical of the West appear to be expanding.

Lingle and her delegation landed at Halim Airport in Jakarta about 3 p.m. today, local time — 10 p.m. yesterday, Hawai'i time — after a nine-hour flight aboard a Hawai'i Air National Guard plane.

Lingle received a police escort through the streets of Jakarta to her hotel.

She will meet tomorrow with local leaders in Jakarta, including a member of the Indonesian Parliament, after officially announcing the military partnership in a joint news conference with Indonesian Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono.

The warm reception Lingle received from the Indonesian government represents another step forward in relations between the United States and Indonesia, still on the mend a decade after President Clinton cut off ties because of Indonesia's use of force while trying to suppress East Timor's ultimately successful bid for independence.

President Bush traveled to Indonesia in 2006 to improve relations between the two nations.

And just two months ago, joint exercises between the Indonesian military and U.S. forces were held for the first time since 1997. Hawai'i National Guard members and active-duty soldiers stationed in the Islands are now participating in two exercises in Indonesia, one of which centers on disaster response. Lingle will be briefed on the exercise.

"Indonesia is exerting its influence and exerting a role outside the country in a way that it hasn't for a very long time," said Terrance Bigalke, director of education at the East-West Center, who studies Indonesia and is accompanying the governor.

He added, "I think it's very important for governors of American states and other highly placed officials to personally develop a relationship with a country as important as Indonesia."

This is the first time Lingle has come to Indonesia as governor, though she went once as Maui mayor and once as head of the Republican Party in Hawai'i.

This is also her first trip aimed at disaster preparedness.

Previous trips to China and Japan were meant to bolster tourism. A trip to the Philippines last year celebrated the centennial of the first immigration of Filipinos to Hawai'i.

Lingle will leave Jakarta on Thursday, heading for Tokyo and then to Okinawa. Those visits will center on opportunities in Hawai'i for Japanese businesses.

The cost of the trip for the governor and four of her staff members is about $13,500. Officials accompanying Lingle are paying for the trip out of their department budgets, but a tally of the total cost of the trip for taxpayers was not immediately available.

In an interview last week, Lingle said Indonesia is in a unique position to teach the Islands about disaster preparedness. In addition to the devastating 2004 tsunami that killed more than 120,000 in Indonesia and ravaged dozens of coastal villages, the country has also recently been through major floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Indonesia also has the most cases of avian flu of any nation in the world.

PACT WITH MILITARY

The state partnership Lingle will sign with Indonesia's military means both forces will get valuable information on how to respond during and after a disaster.

The pact is only the fourth of its kind in the U.S. Pacific Command, and the first to be signed since the 1990s. Alaska has such a partnership with Mongolia, Washington holds one with Thailand and Hawai'i and Guam jointly partner with the military in the Philippines.

"It's an opportunity to learn from them," Lingle said. "It's not really a partnership in a traditional military sense but in a civil defense kind of arrangement."

Maj. Gen. Vern Miyagi, the mobilization assistant to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, added that the partnership is meant to "identify what Indonesia needs in an emergency and, likewise, what Hawai'i needs in the event of an emergency."

Miyagi and Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general and head of state Civil Defense, are accompanying Lingle to Indonesia along with several other members of the military.

Lee said Indonesia requested the partnership with Hawai'i, and it was federally approved. The pact will mean a bigger U.S. military presence in the region, participating in exercises and providing aid. Eventually, guard members from other states will be invited to join in.

TSUNAMI SURVIVAL

Ralph Cossa, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Hawai'i, said the approach Lingle and others are taking to the relationship is unusual in that it recognizes the expertise of Indonesians in dealing with disasters.

"Most people approach the issue as what we can do for them," Cossa said in an e-mail while traveling in Malaysia. "It is refreshing (and image-enhancing for the U.S.) to go and ask what we can learn from them and, then, how we can help them."

Cossa and others noted that one of the key ways Hawai'i can help Indonesia is with early-warning technology for tsunamis or even volcanic eruptions.

Indonesia faced considerable criticism for failing to have a tsunami warning system in 2004, and not moving quickly enough to install sensors in the aftermath of the killer waves.

In July 2006, after a tsunami struck Java and killed at least 500, the international community questioned why no warning systems were up and working.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in 'Ewa Beach has been working with tsunami officials in Indonesia to create a warning system and disaster center. Lingle will tour the revamped facility with Indonesian officials and Charles McCreery, head of the Hawai'i center. She will also get an update on how many warning buoys are working.

Meanwhile, Bigalke said, the Indonesian military needs to tweak its disaster response tactics, especially if Lingle wants to secure the help of that country as a safety net.

"The Indonesian military was not developed to be able to respond effectively to natural disasters," he said, noting that its response to the 2004 tsunami was regarded as "clumsy."

But Bigalke said the partnership with the Hawai'i National Guard could go far in getting the Indonesian military readier to respond to disasters — even those outside its country.

For Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the state Department of Health, the trip will be invaluable in learning how Indonesia is responding to avian flu.

Bird flu has killed 79 people in Indonesia, the highest death toll for any nation.

PREPARING FOR BIRD FLU

Fukino said Indonesia could provide valuable lessons for Hawai'i on quarantine, if the disease were ever to make it to the Islands; and secondly, it's vital to know how Indonesia is containing bird flu, so the state can gauge just how high a threat visitors from the country would pose if the disease starts to be transmitted by humans.

Now, most victims of bird flu catch it by handling sick fowl.

The most recent avian flu deaths in Indonesia happened earlier this month. One was a 15-year-old girl, the other a 40-year-old man. Both lived in small towns in central Java.

"It is of interest to us to see how their system is dealing with this," said Fukino, who is traveling to Indonesia and Japan with the governor. "What do their borders look like?"

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.