Indonesia and Russia launch first joint naval drills

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Indonesia and Russia have begun their first joint naval exercises, as Jakarta’s new leader Prabowo Subianto seeks a bigger role for the south-east Asian country on the global stage.

The exercises off the eastern coast of Java island, come just two weeks after Prabowo, a former general and defence minister, took over Indonesia’s presidency.

Prabowo has vowed to maintain Indonesia’s long-standing neutral foreign policy, but he is also seeking a more influential role for the world’s fourth-most populous country, whose natural resources have put it at the centre of global clean energy supply chains.

The five-day joint exercise will be conducted in Surabaya, a port in the east of Java, and its surrounding waters, the Indonesian navy said on Monday. Russia has brought four warships, one helicopter and one tug salvage ship for the exercise, it added.

Indonesia has held joint exercises with Russia in the past as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but this week’s drills are the first bilateral effort between the two countries. Jakarta also holds annual joint exercises with the US and its allies.

“Indonesia’s first-ever joint naval drills with Russia mark a significant shift in how the country engages with the world,” said Dedi Dinarto, lead Indonesia analyst at strategic advisory Global Counsel. “Rather than solely focusing on interactions with major powers like China and the United States, the Prabowo administration is embracing a multilateral approach . . . that allows Indonesia to work with a diverse range of partners.”

Analysts have noted that Prabowo has shown a more active inclination than his predecessor Joko Widodo to engage with world leaders and explore avenues for defence co-operation.

As president-elect, Prabowo travelled to more than a dozen countries and met leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. Last week, his administration announced its intention of joining the Brics grouping of major emerging economies that includes China and Russia. 

“We consider Russia as a great friend,” Prabowo said in a statement after meeting Putin in July, calling to deepen ties with Moscow.

Prabowo is preparing to embark on his first official overseas trip this week, with Indonesian media reporting that he will head to Beijing, which was his first stop after winning Indonesia’s presidential election in February. He is also expected to visit the US and UK.

But Julia Lau, senior fellow and co-co-ordinator of the Indonesia studies programme at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, warned against interpreting the naval drills and overtures to the Brics bloc of emerging economies as evidence of a tilt towards China and Russia. As president-elect, Prabowo also met Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and France’s Emmanuel Macron.

Prabowo “is trying a balancing act vis-à-vis the US, China and Russia,” she said. The military drills with Russia are “part of the new administration’s strategy to show that they are not aligned with any great power”.

Evan Laksmana, senior fellow for south-east Asia military modernisation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, argued that the naval exercise “benefits Russia more than Indonesia”.

“Russia is able to say they are not isolated” despite Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he added, and “to demonstrate its regional presence” as a defence partner.

“It may even help Russia to eventually further its ability to collaborate with China and North Korea in the event of a regional contingency.”