JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia and Russia will hold their first joint naval drills next month, Jakarta’s navy said yesterday, as the Southeast Asian archipelago’s new leader seeks to boost ties with Moscow.
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.
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. Former president Joko Widodo became the first Asian leader to visit both Kyiv and Moscow since February 2022.
Indonesia last week also started the process of becoming a member of the BRICS bloc led by Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
