Naval forces of Indonesia and Russia began their first joint military training drills in the Java Sea on Nov. 4. Reuters reported on the news, citing analysts as saying that this “shows the Southeast Asian country’s willingness to befriend any country.”
Reuters adds: “The joint exercise comes as Indonesia’s newly-inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto has pledged closer ties with Russia on defense, in his bid to forge ties with any country as part of his country’s long-held non-alignment foreign policy.” China’s Global Times reports: “According to Free Malaysia Today on Nov. 1, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is on a working visit to China from Monday to Thursday [Nov. 4-7], has revealed that he recently rejected a call by the top U.S. diplomat to stop being friendly with Russia by saying ‘We are an independent, sovereign country; we make decisions for our people and our nation.’”
