Indonesia, Russia conduct 1st-ever joint naval drills in Java Sea

ISTANBUL

Indonesia and Russia on Monday began their first-ever joint naval exercise in the waters of the Java Sea.

A statement from the Indonesian Navy said that the drills began with an opening ceremony in the port city of Surabaya in the Southeast Asian nation's East Java province, which was attended by officials including Russia’s Ambassador to Indonesia Sergey Tolchenov.

The exercise is aimed at strengthening "strategic cooperation" and improving the operational capabilities of the Russian and Indonesian navies.

The exercise will take place in two phases, with the Russian side participating in the drills with three corvette-class warships and a medium tanker that arrived in Surabaya a day earlier.

The joint naval exercise came as Prabowo Subianto, a former defense minister, was inaugurated as Indonesia’s president last month after being elected in February.

Prabowo has visited multiple countries as president-elect, including Russia in July, where he described Moscow as a "friendly country" and emphasized the desire to maintain strong relations between the two nations.

Jakarta and Moscow had signed a pact under which Indonesia would procure Russian Su-35 fighter jets with the former reportedly scrapping the deal in 2020.

However, Tolchenov said last month that the deal was "still on despite the delays."

“The (purchase) contracts for the Su-35 are not terminated, but frozen. We hope that the deals will be implemented somewhere in the future. It has been many years since (the deal) got signed, so maybe there might be some changes to the conditions. Perhaps we will be able to introduce some sort of technology transfers,” he said.

*Riyaz ul Khaliq contributed to this story.