Indonesia & Russia Forging Strong Future

Plus a bit of anthropology.

President-elect of the Republic of Indonesia, its current Minister of Defence, Prabowo Subianto and Putin

The enthusiasm shown by President-elect Subianto during the public aspect of his meeting with Team Putin today signals a clear upgrade in relations that’s extremely important for the viability of ASEAN. The recorded conversation is short but very strong on specifics, which is somewhat unusual while the cameras are on. Here’s what they had to say:

The talks began with a narrow-format conversation. From the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, First Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Russian part of the Russian-Indonesian Joint Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation Denis and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey .

Then the international consultations continued in the format of a working breakfast with the participation of the delegations of the two countries.

Start of Russian-Indonesian narrow-format talks

Vladimir Putin: I am very glad to see you.

Good afternoon! Welcome!

We know you well, we know you as a friend of our country. You are a well-known military and political figure in Indonesia. You continue to be the Minister of Defense for many years. I know that you have developed very good relations with your Russian colleagues.

Russia has a very long-standing friendly relationship with Indonesia, for decades. Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries.

I should note that trade and economic ties have been developing quite successfully recently: despite the pandemic and all the events that are taking place around Russia, and the restrictions associated with it, our trade turnover is still growing – it has doubled in recent years. This is a very good trend, and it continues to please us. I hope that the situation will continue.

We also express our hope that the agreement on a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Community and Indonesia, which has already been prepared for signing, will also play a very positive role in the development of our trade and economic ties. The Eurasec market is quite large and capacious. The market of Indonesia – a country with almost 300 million inhabitants, is also of great interest to Russia.

We are ready to further increase the supply of agricultural products, implement investment projects in the field of energy, transport, and infrastructure. The intergovernmental commission is working on this: The head of the intergovernmental commission on our part, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government, Mr. Manturov, is here. I hope that in the course of work between our colleagues, the situation will be strengthened. On both sides, the main thing is that there is interest in it.

We continue to cooperate in the humanitarian sphere as well. We have traditionally trained Indonesian students, including at the expense of the Russian budget, and we are ready to do so. Our Russian Center for Science and Culture operates in Jakarta. We would like to thank you for supporting this work.

And of course, in the international arena, we manage to coordinate our positions, including-and above all – within the framework of ASEAN.

We are very happy to see you. I once again congratulate you personally on your election as President of Indonesia. I would like to wish you all the best in your service to your country and people.

Welcome!

:(as translated)P.Subianto Thank you very much.

Your Excellency,

I would like to thank you for the great honor you have given me, for hosting me, and for arranging this visit in such a short time.

This is the fourth time I have come to Moscow in the last four years, and this is the fourth time you have received me, Your Excellency. And I have the fondest memories of it. And I would also like to convey to you the best wishes of the President [of Indonesia Joko] Widodo, I have informed him that our meeting will take place. I would also like to congratulate you on your re-election as President of the Russian Federation.

As you know, we consider Russia as a great friend of our country. I would like to continue and further develop such relations with your country.

We remember from history that Russia has always helped us in many ways. When we were experiencing difficulties, Russia came to our aid.

Of course, despite the fact that it was still the Soviet Union, today if you come to Jakarta, you will see that large infrastructure facilities, many of them, were built by the Soviet Union: our parliament building, the national stadium, for example, our first major highway, as well as a large number of bridges in different parts of the world. corners of Indonesia. At that time, it was the Soviet Union that was engaged in their construction.

You also contributed to the development of our military forces when we were under threat. Thus, we have inherited such relationships from our ancestors. We must never forget those who helped us.

I personally witnessed that we were given significant support, I can say this as the Minister of Defense. We felt the support of your team, your Defense Minister.

I have come here to emphasize that I intend and would like to develop our relations when I officially take office as President of the Republic of Indonesia on October 20 this year.

I have held intensive talks with your colleagues. I met with the First Deputy Prime Minister today. In addition, I had a meeting with senior officials involved in military policy. We have held quite intensive negotiations in recent months. We discussed a road map for the future, which we hope will boost our cooperation with Russia.

Of course, we have already said that in addition to food security and energy security, I would like to focus on education. I plan to initiate a substantial scholarship program so that we can send our students to study outside of Indonesia. This is especially true for the training of medical students, because we lack 160,000 doctors. If possible, we would like to send some of our young students to the Russian Federation to study at universities and technical colleges. I plan to allocate a special budget for these scholarship needs.

We believe that Russia could become one of the main countries that will accept our students for training. In the 60s, we sent a large number of young people to study in your country. This is as far as education is concerned.

I have held talks with some representatives of your industry. We are open to Russia's more active participation in our economy. In the field of nuclear energy, we discussed the possibility of cooperation in this area with your institutions, such as Rosatom. We discussed small modular reactors, as well as large reactors.

As far as tourism is concerned, we believe that Aeroflot can make direct flights to Bali. We also welcome the fact that, as far as I understand, Russia is planning to open a consulate general in Bali. We fully support this.

We also support the possibility of direct flights operated not only by Aeroflot, but also by other airlines.

As for other industries, we look forward to intensive cooperation in a number of tactical areas. I would like to invite the Russian delegation to our defense industry exhibition in November this year. And I would also like to invite Russian participants to our naval parade, which will be held in early 2025. I promised your Secretary of Defense that we would send our naval contingent to participate in your next Navy Day parade. We have received such an invitation, and we will be happy to take part in it.

Your Excellency, we have a good cooperation with you, and we need to expand and deepen it. We will continue to discuss our future cooperation in a number of industries.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: I thank you and ask you to convey my best wishes to the current President [of Indonesia], Mr. Widodo. We have always had good relations with him. I hope that everything that has been planned as Indonesia's policy on the Russian direction will not only be preserved, but also under your leadership will gain new momentum. [My Emphasis]

Another key leader recognizes that education is the key to multiplying the nation’s Human Capital’s contributions to itself and the nation. Such a policy also finds support within Islam. Indonesia is perhaps the biggest melting pot of humanity on the planet with over 700 spoken languages and 1,300 ethnic groups while having the fourth largest population.

As you see, there’re many political jurisdictions within Indonesia with the latest changes to its constitution granting more autonomy and authority to regions and localities that might be expected with such a diverse population. Oceanographers and anthropologists have a very strong interest in the region for a variety of reasons, several of which are related to the facts depicted below:

Sundaland at the last glacial maximum.

And:

Drawing of the presumed coastlines in South-East Asia and now submerged river systems. This drawing presumes a sea level of −120m compared to present day. This level was reached about 17000 years before present day. The assumed riverbeds are based on the surface contours of the seabed in the area. These help to explain the high density of population on this network of islands that would otherwise expected to be far less dense. Some will recall reading about Java Man, which over 100 years after its discovery is now termed an example of Homo Erectus. Java has provided more examples of such hominids and if more exploration were done, I’d expect even more to be found. The region is extremely fecund making it very easy for humans to live within Nature until the present day. And what evidence is drowned by the waters? Some will have heard of the book Eden in the East; I’ve read it, and here’s a review. Twenty years after its publication a new work is now available, Sundaland: Tracing The Cradle of Civilizations, that can be freely downloaded at the link.

My point is Indonesia, its neighbors and their ancestors have made a marked contribution to Humanity over its lifespan and the region’s poised to do so again. Asia as a whole has close to five billion people; and as all that Human Capital gets developed, the region will become the leader in human development and development of technologies. Those in the west whose wealth is based on the debts of others and think they are superior will be in for a shock. Asian philosophy is diametrically different from that of the West as it aims for a world at peace and in balance with itself based on the pursuit of the betterment of all. This natural change in human direction is being violently resisted by a small group of people who happen to have control over several key national governments and their financial institutions. What IMO is most striking is the solidarity of the Global Majority and the refusal of Western elites to reach an appropriate accommodation so conflict can be avoided. Indonesia seeking to further empower itself by enhancing its relations with Russia along with Malaysia and other ASEAN nations is key to the entire effort.

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