Jakarta, Moscow to hold first joint naval exercises
Department of Security and Military Strategic Research and Studies 30-10-2024
Indonesia and Russia will hold their first joint naval drills next month, Jakarta’s navy said on Tuesday, as the Southeast Asian archipelago’s new leader seeks to boost ties with Moscow.
The region’s biggest economy maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in great power competition between Washington and Beijing.
But Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to be bolder on the world stage and visited Moscow in July for talks with Vladimir Putin.
The Indonesian navy said the drills would take place from November 4 to 8 in the Java Sea, near a naval base in the city of Surabaya, southern East Java province.
“[It] is a milestone bilateral exercise between TNI AL and the Russian navy,” the navy said in the statement, using its Indonesian acronym.
Russia will send three corvette class warships, a medium tanker ship, a military helicopter and a tug boat, it said.
Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Sergey Tolchenov confirmed the drills and said they were not aimed at any rival power.
“It’s… just to increase the capabilities and potential of our two fleets,” he told a press briefing on Monday.
Indonesia has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Former president Joko Widodo became the first Asian leader to visit both Kyiv and Moscow since the outbreak of the war on Feb. 24, 2022.
Kyiv derided Prabowo in June 2023 when he was Indonesia’s defense minister over what it called a “strange” peace proposal he made at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore.
His plan included demilitarized zones and referendums in disputed areas of eastern Ukraine.
Indonesia last week also started the process of becoming a member of the Brics bloc, led by Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, new Foreign Minister Sugiono — who goes by one name — told a Brics Plus summit in the Russian city of Kazan last week.
