Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto skipped a G7 summit last month to , where he and his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed that bilateral ties are “getting stronger again.”
“My meeting with President Putin today was intense, warm and productive. In all fields of economics, technical cooperation, trade, investment, and agriculture, they all have experienced significant improvements,” Prabowo’s office said in a statement after the visit.
Officially part of the 75th anniversary of Indonesia–Russia diplomatic ties, Prabowo’s three-day visit last month meant he missed a chance to meet US President Donald Trump for the first time at the G7 summit in Canada.
Standing next to Putin, Prabowo said Indonesia would not follow the philosophies of “the biggest and most powerful power in the world” and described Russia and China as without “double standards” and as defenders of “the downtrodden and the oppressed.”
Prabowo’s trip came a month after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s latest visit to Russia, his third in two years.
Although and did initially condemn Russia’s in early 2022, they have typically taken a neutral position on the ongoing war. Beginning early 2024, their public statements have also become noticeably more pro-Moscow.
During his trip to Vladivostok in September last year, Anwar praised Putin for his “vision and leadership” and for his “determination…to survive,” presumably referring to Western sanctions.
He also championed Moscow for its “remarkable soft power” that has earned it “global respect and admiration, influencing the hearts and minds of people around the world.”
Indonesia and Malaysia balance interests
Prabowo and Anwar “are keen to strengthen their countries’ non-alignment by pursuing a more balanced foreign policy, including closer ties with both Russia and China,” Ian Storey, senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and author of the newly-released book, ‘Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia,’ told DW.
“A more balanced foreign policy includes strengthening economic engagement with Moscow, even though the opportunities for growing trade and investment ties with Russia are quite limited,” he added.
Despite the limitations, Russia’s bilateral trade with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries grew to a record high of $22 billion in 2023, according to Russian data cited by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. That represents more than 14% year-on-year growth. This growth trend is expected to continue.
Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta are exploring possible ways to expand trade, including in arms imports. Energy is another important area of cooperation, especially for Indonesia, which still heavily relies on coal as a source of power.
Several Southeast Asian states have an interest in exporting electrical goods and machinery to Russia, which has faced crippling Western sanctions since 2022.
They are keen on utilizing Russian expertise to develop their civilian nuclear energy sectors. Last month, Vietnam and Moscow agreed to fast-track agreements that could see Russian firms help build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plants.
In February, ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn opened an exhibition on ASEAN-Russia Cooperation in Civilian Nuclear Energy and Technologies at the regional bloc’s headquarters in Jakarta.
In St. Petersburg last month, Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, Danatara, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund signed an agreement to create an investment fund worth €2 billion.
Alternative international forums
While several Southeast Asian countries are looking to join multilateral organizations, such as Thailand’s successful bid to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), many have looked to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) grouping as an alternative arena for global politics.
Indonesia is now a formal member of , while Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are partner countries.
Although Malaysia and Indonesia’s governments began their overtures with Russia before Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, Washington turning away from international institutions since then has convinced many Asian leaders that they can no longer count on US support and that the future of the Western-backed international order might soon be over, analysts say.
“The recent change in US administration and opportunities like BRICS membership have provided both governments with more space to engage Russia,” Prashanth Parameswaran, founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter, told DW.
What do Malaysia and Indonesia want?
However, it remains unclear to what extent Malaysia and Indonesia are merely engaging with Russia out of geopolitical necessity to diversify their bilateral relations and , or how much they have a deeper affinity with Moscow’s vision for the world.
When asked by reporters why he turned down a G7 invitation to instead visit Russia, Prabowo replied, “Don’t read too much into it …We want to be friends with everybody.”
However, attending the G7 event in Canada would have given him his first opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump.
However, the speech in St. Petersberg “did not come across as convincing that Indonesia would remain neutral in the ongoing big power rivalry, with veiled criticisms of the US on the one hand, and a lavishing of praise for China and Russia on the other,” according to a Jakarta Post analysis piece published this week.
Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, said that Russia provides an “interesting model” for Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is a country “that can act independently, poke America and the West in the eye, and try to establish a new international order,” he told DW.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar’s several visits to over the past two years have motivated the party by a desire to gain a more prominent position on the world stage, Bridget Welsh, an honorary research associate at the University of Nottingham’s Asia Research Institute Malaysia, told DW.
But it is also because Russia is “popular at home due to anti-westernism, with many Malaysians believing that the US provoked the Ukraine War,” she added.
This year’s State of Southeast Asia Survey, a poll of “elite” opinion in the region conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, found that anti-Western feeling is riding high in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia, in large measure due to the West’s support for Israel in its Middle Eastern wars.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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