Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will visit Russia next week for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, skipping a Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Canada.
The country’s Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that Prabowo will travel to Singapore to meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on June 16, before flying on to Russia. During the June 18-20 visit, the Indonesian leader will hold bilateral talks with Putin, meet with local businessmen, and participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The ministry was vague as to the subject of the talks with Putin, but said that defense matters may also be discussed, along with transport and education. The visit “is likely to result in some new Russian deals on technology, ship production, and other areas,” the Jakarta Globe reported.
Prabowo’s decision to prioritize Putin’s invitation over a meeting of the G-7, a grouping from which Russia was expelled in 2014, following its annexation of Crimea, is likely to raise questions about the direction of Indonesian foreign policy. However, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Rolliansyah Soemirat said that the state visits to Singapore and Russia had been organized before the invitation to attend the G-7 talks arrived from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Prabowo “recently received a call from the Canadian prime minister and conveyed his support for the G-7 proceedings,” Rolliansyah said. The Foreign Ministry said that it was unclear if Prabowo will join the G-7 meeting virtually, or if another Indonesian official would attend in his place.
“Prabowo is someone who always sticks to his words, and the meetings like the one in Singapore are something that has been long planned for,” the spokesperson said.
In any event, Prabowo’s foreign policy moves have been mostly consistent with Indonesia’s established policy of non-alignment, with some slight tweaks. Since taking office last October, Prabowo has paid state visits to the United States, China, the United Kingdom, India, Turkiye, and several Gulf states. For Indonesia, as for many of its Southeast Asian neighbors, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been no bar to closer relations with Russia, which remains an important defense and strategic partner for many countries in the region.
Last July, two months prior to his inauguration, Prabowo traveled to Moscow, and told Putin that he regarded Russia as a “great friend” of Indonesia. He also said that as president he “would like to continue to maintain and enhance this relationship.”
The pair discussed the possibility of boosting economic ties, including via a free trade agreement between Indonesia and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Putin said that his nation was ready to “further scale up supplies of agricultural products, implement investment projects in the field of energy, transport, and infrastructure.”
Putin and Prabowo also affirmed plans to boost defense industry cooperation, including via possible transfers of defense technology. The visit to Russia was his fourth since becoming defense minister in late 2019.
Ian Storey of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, the author of a new book on Putin’s growing engagement with Southeast Asia, wrote at the time that the visit “was a signal that his administration intends to pursue a balanced foreign policy vis-à-vis the major powers, and one that envisages a bigger role for Russia.”