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Prabowo’s Ukraine quip hangs over Aussie meetup
Australia mulls 10-year timeline for bilateral defense pact as Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto meets with his counterpart following a suggested Russia-Ukraine peace plan that has divided opinions.
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Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles (center) and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (left) review honor guards at the ministry office in Jakarta on June 5, 2023. (AFP/Adek Berry)
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efense Minister Prabowo Subianto’s Ukraine peace plan suggestion at the Shangri-La Dialogue at the weekend hung over a meeting with Australia’s visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles, who reiterated Canberra’s full support of Ukraine while noting that any peace solutions should be based on Kyiv’s terms.
Marles was a guest to Prabowo in Jakarta on Monday, the latest stopover in a trip across the Indo-Pacific.
Refusing to issue any comments about Prabowo’s peace plan, which was deemed “strange” by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikof, Marles instead explained that military cooperation with Jakarta was among Australia’s top regional priorities.
“Clearly all the defense ministers were speaking about Ukraine over the course of the [Shangri-La Dialogue]. I’ll let Minister [Prabowo] speak for himself,” Marles told reporters in Jakarta after the meeting. “Australia made its position in respect of that very clear at the outset.”
Over the weekend, hundreds of delegates hailing from over 40 countries assembled in Singapore for one of the region’s biggest foreign policy and defense forums to mull over pressing global security issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and sharpening tensions between the United States and China.
The event saw Prabowo announcing a peace strategy to facilitate the end of Russia’s invasion, a five-point suggestion that included a truce, the establishment of a demilitarized zone and the deployment of a monitoring force from the United Nations, which would also kickstart a referendum process in the disputed areas.
The peace plan garnered mixed reviews, with some welcoming the suggestions while others questioned them.
