Russia and Indonesia have begun their first joint military training drills in the Java Sea as Jakarta seeks to boost ties with Moscow. Four Russian warships arrived in the port of Surabaya on Sunday ahead of the 5-day exercise. Although Jakarta maintains a neutral foreign policy, Indonesia's new president Prabowo Subianto has pledged closer relations with Russia on defense. Indonesia also conducts military exercises with other countries, including the United States. Let's get more now from our Asia Pacific bureau chief G. Mates in Jakarta. G, good to see you. Closer military ties with Russia. What does Indonesia stand to gain from this relationship? Beish, I think two aspects are interesting here. One is, of course, the military one. These trainings are quite important for the Indonesian military, but it's not something uncommon. They recently conducted a similar training with a German naval vessel that came to these waters. And the second one is the more interesting part here, and that's the economic ties that Indonesia seeks as the biggest market here in Southeast Asia, not only when it comes to

energy but also to fertilizers and to wheat imports. Russia is extremely important and prao suban. The new president went when he was still President-elect in July to fly to Moscow and announced that he would like to deepen the relationship with this country. And how could this impact the geopolitical situation in the Pacific? Well, of course, as you have pointed out, Indonesia holds a neutral stance. It tries to remain non-aligned in international politics, and one aspect of international politics is something where which you can feel in any relations economically and militarily when it comes to the US-China rivalry here. And this is an aspect where a number of Southeast Asian nations lately have become a new partner status in the BRICS alliance, where there's also Moscow and whether it's also China. And the idea here is that this could help to maximize autonomy in this power struggle between the two giants, between China and the US, that this relationship to Russia may be an open door to maximize autonomy to

have another way out uh to remain as neutral as as possible and to have as many options uh not just economically but also in terms of foreign policy as possible. And will this have any impact on the military relationship that Indonesia has with the United States? I think when we look at the new president, Brao Subo, there's one interesting aspect. He was the defense minister in this country before becoming president. President, and he was holding tightly on to an arms deal with Russia about fighter jets, 1.5 million uh dollar heavy uh deal, despite the fact that this could have serious um sanctions from the US, who would not welcome such a deal, of course. So there is um sympathy towards Russia on his part, clearly. But one has to point out as well that there's an annual big big military exercise, the so-called Garuda Shield, that is conducted with the US. So the main thing, if you ask officials here, is they want to remain neutral and partner up with any country that approaches Indonesia. DW Jakarta bureau

Russia, Indonesia hold joint military drills: What are the implications? | DW News

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