Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto may soon visit Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin spokesperson said yesterday, as nations across the world turn to Moscow for help in securing energy supplies.
According to a Reuters report, Dmitry Peskov was asked by a reporter about a possible visit by Prabowo and whether the Indonesian leader would discuss oil purchases with Putin. He responded that “contacts between the two leaders were being prepared,” adding that an announcement would be made “in due course,” the news agency reported.
According to the report, Prabowo said on Wednesday he would be traveling abroad again soon. While he declined to reveal the destination, he said that the trip was intended to secure Indonesia’s interests.
Peskov’s comments came two days after he told reporters that Russia, the second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, was fielding requests for energy from nations across the globe who are concerned about the energy crisis stemming from the war in the Middle East. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has prompted Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz to most vessels, choking off a significant proportion of the global oil and gas supply.
“Now that the world has confidently embarked on the path of a rather serious economic and energy crisis, which is growing day by day, the market and market conditions in the field of energy and energy resources have completely changed,” Peskov said.
“There are a huge number of requests for the purchase of our energy resources from alternative sources. We are negotiating, we are negotiating in such a way that this situation best suits our interests.”
The demand for Russian oil has been particularly strong in Asia, the destination of more than 80 percent of the crude oil and liquefied natural gas that traverses the Strait. Asian countries including Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka have either purchased or expressed interest in purchasing Russian energy.
Indonesia is not as directly reliant on Middle Eastern oil and gas as some of its neighbors – only around 25 percent of its crude comes from the Gulf – but the government, wary of political disquiet, has pledged to maintain costly fuel subsidies. This has put pressure on the country’s budget, already straining due to Prabowo’s suite of high-spending social programs, including his free-meals scheme. The government has announced that it will boost imports from Angola and Nigeria to maintain domestic supply. In mid-March, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia also announced that Indonesia was also looking to purchase oil from Russia.
Energy purchases from Russia would further strengthen the incipient strategic partnership between the two nations, which has proceeded apace under Prabowo. A closer relationship with Moscow has been an important component of Prabowo’s policy of assertive non-alignment, which seeks improved relations with nations of all persuasions, all the better to reduce its reliance on any one of them.
If confirmed, the trip would be Prabowo’s third to Russia since taking office in October 2024, following trips in June and December of last year. Prabowo also traveled to Russia five times as defense minister between 2019 and 2024.
During a visit to St. Petersburg in June of last year, Prabowo had what he described as a “intense, warm, and productive” meeting with Putin, during which the two leaders agreed to advance cooperation in “economics, technical cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture.”
Putin added, “We have good prospects in a number of promising and very interesting areas of cooperation. “This includes agriculture, space, and energy, as well as military-technical cooperation. Our interaction is very great, and it is growing.”