Indonesia and Russia hold joint naval exercises

The Indonesian Navy will begin exercises with Russia tomorrow. According to Indonesia, Russia is sending several warships and a helicopter to the Java Sea, where training will take place until Friday.

The cooperation is not entirely new, as the ASEAN Southeast Asian bloc was already working with Russia in 2021, but Indonesia has never done so alone. So the country is talking about a milestone.

The exercise with Russia once again shows that Indonesia wants to play a bigger role on the world stage. The new president Prabowo Subianto has expressed these intentions several times. In July, he met with Russian President Putin in Moscow and later announced the cooperation.

Previous Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited both Kyiv and Moscow in recent years. He was the first Asian leader to visit the two cities after the war broke out in 2022.

Prabowo has been strengthening international ties since winning the elections in February. For example, before his inauguration last month, he visited President Macron in France and President Erdogan in Turkey. Even after his inauguration, he is busy planning other trips. In the coming weeks he will travel to China, the United States and Peru. Visit Holland it is not planned yet.