Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobieva (JP/I Gede Dharma JS)

The new Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobieva aims to improve bilateral relations in all aspects in the best possible way. The Jakarta Post’s Dian Septiari spoke with Vorobieva recently about her views on political, trade and cultural exchanges that bear improvement. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Question: What are the goals you want to achieve during your tenure in Jakarta?

Answer: I’m often asked what my goals as a Russian ambassador in Indonesia would be. I would answer that the job of an ambassador is to promote bilateral relations in the best way. My job here is to engage every possibility for both Russia and Indonesia. Critical dialogue is very important, and we enjoy a very active dialogue between the two countries.

And of course, sound economic, trade and investment relations is one of my targets.

To promote this kind of relation between the two countries, to provide more information for businessman, we ought to know more about the opportunities here for Russian business and my country as tourist destination is another sphere of cooperation that is very important. Russia has a lot to offer in terms of education, Indonesian cultural exchange and tourism. All these spheres I think are promising.

What makes the relations between Russia and Indonesia unique?

Indonesia and Russia are big countries with a combined population of 400 million people, so that alone makes our cooperation very meaningful for both sides. On the other hand, we really value, very highly, the independent voice of Indonesia in regional and international spheres and we have a lot of similarities and approaches to global and regional issues that also open a lot of opportunities for our interaction in various international and regional organizations.

You have said a decision would be made after the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin, which happened on May 7, about his planned visit to Indonesia. Do you have any update about this visit?

I cannot confirm yet that this has been made official. As you have mentioned, the inauguration took place last week so we are more or less concentrating on domestic issues; a new cabinet is being established and the prime minister has been reappointed. There are some changes, but as Russian ambassador to Indonesia I really hope the decision could be taken soon and the visit would take place before the end of the year.

Indonesia is a very important country for Russia and I think the last visit of our president to Jakarta was 10 years ago, so it is quite timely to have another official visit from Russia to Indonesia.

As trading partners, Indonesia and Russia have seen increased volumes of trade over the years. What do you think was the reason for this? What can we do to increase them?

There have been a positive trend on the increase of trade volumes last year and many things contribute to that: the governments’ promotion of cooperation, a more positive global environment. But of course it’s not enough. According to Russian statistics last year our trade volumes were [worth] around US$3.2 billion, which can be much more. Our leaders have set the target to raise it to $5 billion.

There is still a lot of things that can be done to diversify the structure of trade with more emphasis on not only agricultural products. Actually, the main item Russia imported from Indonesia is not palm oil but machinery, so we want more emphasis on items like that.

We have a very good mechanism for bilateral cooperation. We are expecting new negotiations will take place sometime in the autumn, this September in Russia, to find ways to further our relations in trade and investment before the visit of President Putin.

Does Russia plan to sponsor more scholarships and cultural exchanges with Indonesia?

Cultural exchange is extremely important to help people know and understand our culture better, not just to believe the mainstream Western media that often shows a distorted view of Russia and Russian people. So far, we provide around 168 scholarships per year but if there’s a need for more we can increase it.

In tourism, what makes Russia interesting for Indonesian people?

Russia is very diverse and it’s a country with great culture and great historical traditions and beautiful nature. There’s a lot of places, from the capital of Russia, that provide a lot of interesting things to see and to visit, like our heritage place in the Kremlin and many places in Moscow, or the St. Petersburg palaces and museums and theater where one can watch the famous Russian ballet.

What’s the Russian point of view on Syria?

I would like to highlight that Russia is present in Syria not to support the government of Bashar Assad. The main reason why Russia is in Syria was to fight terrorism and that is what we are doing.

Our reason why was to prevent it happening elsewhere in the world, not only in Russia, Syria, or Indonesia.

Terrorist attacks happened recently in Indonesia and I would like to express my condolences for the losses from those awful attacks. In Russia we also experience terrorist attacks, so we know what terrorism is.

I would like to stress that no country in our global environment is immune to this kind of thing, so only with a joint effort can we prevent this from happening. Also, that highlights the need for cooperation between Russia and Indonesia to fight terrorism.

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