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View all search resultsAs Prabowo visits Russia again, little headway on Sukhoi
Last week, Prabowo jetted off to Moscow to join the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Victory Day during which he also held talks with Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin.
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efense Minister Prabowo Subianto’s recent visit to Russia to attend the Victory Day military parade highlighted the depth of cooperation in the defense sector between the two countries despite the absence of progress in Indonesia’s plan to procure Russian Sukhoi jet fighters, defense analysts have said.
Last week, Prabowo jetted off to Moscow to join the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory Day, during which he also held talks with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin.
Prabowo's latest visit to Moscow was the second in less than six months, after a trip on Jan. 28, when he met with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu.
Defense analysts said Prabowo's latest visit to Moscow is the culmination of a two-year campaign from the Indonesian Defense Ministry to offer a strategic partnership in the defense industry between the two countries, an overture that has been welcomed by the Russian government, which gradually opened itself to such an idea with the 2019 Military Technical Cooperation (MTC) meeting.
Analyst Curie Maharani Savitri of BINUS University told The Jakarta Post that Prabowo's latest visit marked the changing nature of the two countries’ defense partnership, which dated back to 2003.
“Indonesia has been invested in bilateral relations with Russia since the days of president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2003,” Curie said. “The [relationship is] evolving, from the initial role of Indonesia as a buyer of [Russia’s] primary weapons system; now Russia has opened itself to the prospect of [defense] industry cooperation [with Indonesia].”
Russia’s pivot in the defense partnership with Indonesia was part of a bigger plan to improve its ties with countries in the Southeast Asia region, which have been seen so far only as consumers of its primary weapons system, Curie said.
