Indonesia and Russia to hold first joint naval drills

A fisherman checks a net on a boat in the Java Sea in Demak Regency, Central Java, on June 21, 2023. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA — Indonesia and Russia will hold their first joint naval drills next month, Jakarta’s navy said 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 newly inaugurated Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to be bolder on the world stage and in July visited Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin.

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The Indonesian navy said the drills would take place from November 4 to 8 in the Java Sea near a naval base in Surabaya.

“(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.

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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 Monday.

Indonesia has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to Russia’s years-long invasion of Ukraine.

Former president Joko Widodo became the first Asian leader to visit both Kyiv and Moscow since the outbreak of war in February 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, newly appointed foreign minister Sugiono, who goes by one name, said at a BRICS Plus summit in the Russian city of Kazan.