Indonesia’s joint military training with Russia is not a means by which it rejects America and its allies, but rather the affirmation of Jakarta’s active politics with every country in the Asia Pacific.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has recently voiced the government’s desire to establish closer relations with Moscow, although some Western countries are likely to apply pressure. This is reasonable, considering the dynamics of the world’s geopolitical uncertainty, which tends towards anarchy.
Indonesia and Russia held joint military training in early November, indicating President Subianto’s ambition to further enhance Jakarta’s role in achieving regional peace and stability as part of a continuous and sustainable foreign policy change.
Indonesia’s foreign policy has been based on the principle of active freedom and always chooses to be neutral in addressing Russian conflicts, Ukraine, and competition between the United States and China. However, President Prabowo tends to voice his desire to establish closer relations with Russia, although this is expected to incur pressure from Western countries. The joint war exercises involving the Indonesian Navy and the Russian Navy were held in Surabaya, East Java, and the Java Sea waters on November 4-8, 2024. This exercise added to a strengthening of bilateral strategic military cooperation, boosting the operational capabilities of both countries’ navies. The international joint-exercise (Latma) between the Indonesian Navy and the Russian Navy known as the Latma ORRUDA 2024 took place at Fleet Command II in Surabaya, East Java.
The name ORRUDA itself was decided upon as a portmanteau of the national symbols of the two countries, namely Orel (eagle in Russian) and Garuda (eagle in Indonesian). This integrated and coordinated military operation was carried out to strengthen strategic cooperation and improve the operational capabilities of the navies of the two countries.
The presence of the Russian Navy in the context of Southeast Asia, especially in the North Natuna Sea region, marked the extent to which the presence of the Russian military could reflect Indonesia’s position in anticipating the possibility of conflicts occurring in the North Natuna Sea. The Russian armed forces sent three corvette-class warships, a medium tanker, a military helicopter, and tugs.
However, according to the authors’ view, Indonesia’s joint military training with Russia was not a means by which it rejected America and its allies, but rather the affirmation of Jakarta’s active politics with every country in the Asia Pacific. In addition, joint training with Russia actually provides benefits for Russia, which is currently isolated by a number of countries, including the United States.
Previously, from the end of August to early September 2024, Indonesia held a military exercise, Super Garuda Shield, which was followed by the United States and a number of allies. Whereas in early November 2024, Indonesia held military training together with the Russian Navy in Surabaya, and the Australian Navy in Darwin, Northern Australia.
In principle, this is also part of a broader agenda to improve relations with every country, regardless of their geopolitical blocs, as long as they bring benefits to the Indonesia side. Further, this is actually part of Indonesia’s sustainable diplomacy to advance its position as a non-aligned state in the increasingly dynamic international political arena.
ASEAN had previously held a joint exercise with Russia in 2021. Each member country indeed had never done training together with Moscow separately. Indonesia at that time was the host, while Russia led in the implementation of the ASEAN – Russia Naval Exercise (ARNEX) and the Joint Training (Latihan Bersama/Latma) of the ASEAN-Russian Navy, which began on December 1-3, 2021 in Indonesian waters, off the coast of North Sumatra. The joint military exercise was themed “Joint Actions to Ensure the Safety of Maritime Economic Activity and Civil Navigation”, which was held in a measurable manner and followed the standard procedures.
The commander of Indonesia’s Fleet Command I (Koarmada I), the Russian Ambassador to Indonesia, the Russian Ambassador to ASEAN, and the Defence Attaché conducted an inspection of all military training participants who were using the Indonesian warship KRI Lepu-861. In this joint exercise, Indonesia mobilized one frigate, the KRI I Gusti Ngurah Rai-332, 1 US-565 helicopter, and one CN-235 aircraft, and involved 500 Navy personnel. Of the eleven participating countries, eight sent warships or aircraft and three countries sent observers.
The military exercise aimed to increase cooperation and interaction between the Russian Navy and ASEAN countries. Arnex exercises focus on maritime security areas to build capabilities and generate interoperability between the navies of ASEAN and Russia in order to ensure the security of maritime economic activities and civil navigation.
The Indonesian government has been pursuing billions of dollars of trade with Moscow; however, the import of weapons from Russia has stalled in recent years due to the introduction of Western sanctions, which were implemented after Moscow reunited with Crimea in 2014 and fortified when it carried out its special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.
Before being appointed president on October 20, Prabowo also confirmed his desire to build strong friendships with a number of countries. Therefore, to achieve this goal, Prabowo has visited a number of countries, including China and Australia, where he succeeded in establishing security agreements. Since then, Jakarta has also begun processing efforts to join the developing economic group BRICS. However, Prabowo had faced tests of his policies in Indonesian sea waters, when the Indonesian Sea Security State Agency (Bakamla) succeeded in driving out the Chinese coast guard ships three times because they entered the North Natuna Sea last October.
In 2023, the total value of Indonesia’s trade with Russia reached US$3.34 billion. Indonesia’s exports to Russia in 2023 consisted of: palm oil US$632.6 million), machine parts (US$26.71 million), rubber (US$21.43 million), processed food (US$19.39 million), and cocoa butter (US$10.8 million). Furthermore, the Indonesian government remains committed to the Russian fighter jet procurement agreement, worth $1.1 billion, which was approved in 2018 when General Prabowo was still the Minister of Defence, despite the threat of sanctions from the United States. Indeed, Jakarta also demonstrated its commitments when Western countries lobbied Indonesia to cancel the invitation of attendance to Russia at the G20 Summit, which was held in 2022. Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kremlin in July 2024. Prabowo announced the results of the meeting at the joint naval training exercise, which shows how Moscow always plays an increasingly important role and contributes to the application of foreign policy and global politics.
For the Indonesian government, Russia is considered a close friend in the Asia-Pacific and it wants to continue to maintain and strengthen this relationship.
