Their military is pipsqueak.
“Their military is pipsqueak.”
True.
But because of their sentiment (e.g. hatred of Chinese), it would not take that much to get them to accept the hosting of the new hypersonic and Intermediate Range missiles from the USA.
That could effectively deter, and possibly deny China much of the South China Sea, and vital shipping routes to the Mid-East for oil and gas to their East Coast. Politically, they are major regional chess piece, and a real tough sell for the Chinese.
What they lack in Military, they somewhat make up for with location. In the next Trump term, Indonesia could be transformed into an impassable Naval cordon for China, with US support.
their navy is even pipsqueaker