Canberra’s defence minister said he had received ‘unequivocal’ assurances over reports of a Russian request for access to a Papua airbase
Indonesia
will not allow Russian planes to be stationed on its territory,
Australia
‘s Defence Minister Richard Marles has said, following earlier reports that Moscow had requested permission to access a provincial base in the archipelago.
Marles said he had spoken with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin after defence media outlet Janes reported on Sunday that
Russia
had requested access to a base in the province of Papua for its military aircraft. The report sparked widespread concern in Canberra.
“He made it unequivocally clear to me that there was no prospect of any Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia, and that the reports of that were just not true,” Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday morning.
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Indonesia has long sought to balance its foreign-policy position by maintaining cordial relations with Western nations as well as countries including Russia. Moscow’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu met with President
Prabowo Subianto
in Jakarta in February, and Indonesia has so far refused to take sides in matters including Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine
.
According to Janes, Russia requested access to the Manuhua Air Force Base which is located less than 1,400km (870 miles) from Australia’s northern city of Darwin. Reports of the request from Russia were quickly picked up by Australian media and created a stir ahead of a national election on May 3.
Russia did not directly comment on the reports, but according to the ABC, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “a lot of different pieces of fake news around, publications in the media, including those that relate to sensitive areas”.
Australia’s centre-right opposition quickly responded to the reports, accusing the government of dropping the ball on national security.
However, after Liberal leader Peter Dutton incorrectly claimed that the Russian request had been announced by the Indonesian president, he faced strong criticism from Foreign Minister Penny Wong for being “reckless” in his public remarks.
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