Key Points
- Russia has asked for access to an Indonesian air base.
- Indonesia has assured Australia it will not consider the request.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia will continue to engage with Indonesia on the matter.
Defence Minister Richard Marles says that Indonesia has assured Australia that it will not allow Russia to access one of its military bases.
On Tuesday, military website Janes published an article claiming that Russia had asked Indonesia to base long-range aircraft at the Manuhua air force base, on Biak Island off the Indonesian province of Papua.
In a statement, Marles said he had spoken to his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin who had told him that "reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true".
Earlier, Marles said Indonesia has a "close relationship with Australia" and was engaging with the country's officials "at a senior level".
"We have a growing defence relationship with Indonesia. We will keep engaging with Indonesia in a way, that befits a very close friend and a very close friendship between our two countries," he told reporters.
"Last year, we signed a defence cooperation agreement with Indonesia, which is the deepest level defence agreement we've ever had with Indonesia, and we are seeing increasing cooperation between Australia and Indonesia at a defence level.
"I expect all of that to continue in respect of this particular issue."
Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia's relationship with Indonesia is strong. Source: AAP / Jono Searle
"This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn't have forewarning about this before it was made public," he said.
"This is a very, very troubling development and suggestion that somehow Russia would have some of their assets based in Indonesia only a short distance from, obviously, the north of our country. We need to make sure that the government explains exactly what has happened here."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated his support for Ukraine and said "we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region".
"We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, who's attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine."
In January Indonesia officially joined the Russia-led BRICS group, which seeks to form greater cooperation between non-Western economies.
Lowy Institute research fellow Abdul Rahman Yaacob said the request from Russia was an: "Interesting development."
"The proposed air base is about 2,000 km from Guam and strategically located for Russian long-range aircraft monitoring Guam and the Western Pacific," Yaacob wrote on LinkedIn.
