“I have contacted my counterpart Gen Gatot Nurmantyo and expressed our readiness to help the victims, but at the moment, the situation is still under control and the TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) and the local authorities are still able to manage it.

“However, if they need help, they will immediately tell us,” he told reporters after a passing-out parade of 101 cadet officers at the Armed Forces Academy here today.

Also present were Army Chief Gen Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor, Navy Chief Admiral Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin and Air Force Chief Gen Roslan Saad.

More than 100 people died and thousands left homeless in the earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale on Wednesday.

Zulkifeli said an Airbus A400M, medical supplies and mobile hospitals had been put on stand-by for the purpose of rendering help to Aceh when it called.

In his speech at the event, he said in strengthening the role of the MAF, all strategies, modernisation and improvements of assets as well as the professionalism of its forces would be meaningless without the existence of competent human capital.

In this regard, he said, human resources was the decisive factor in balancing the trilogy of man, machine and method.