Post by : Jyoti Gupta

Photo:AP

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto will travel to Russia next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. His visit is planned for June 18 to 20 and will include important talks between the two leaders and a speech at a big international business event called the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The trip is happening because Putin invited Prabowo.

Before going to Russia, Prabowo will first visit Singapore to meet the country’s new Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong.

Some people are asking why Prabowo is choosing to meet Putin instead of attending the G7 summit in Canada, even though Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, personally invited him. The Indonesian government says the Russia and Singapore trips were planned a long time before the G7 invitation came. Prabowo recently talked with the Canadian prime minister and told him he supports the G7 meeting, but he will not be going in person. It is not clear yet if Prabowo will join the G7 meeting online or send someone else to represent him.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will go to the G7 summit. This could help fix some problems between India and Canada.

Indonesia is known for its “non-aligned” foreign policy, which means it tries to stay friends with many countries and does not take sides in big conflicts. Since Prabowo became president in October 2024, he has visited leaders from the United States and China. He has also kept a good relationship with Putin, even after Russia’s war in Ukraine started.

A few months after becoming president, Prabowo met Putin in Moscow and said he wanted a stronger partnership with Russia. In 2023, he suggested a peace plan for Ukraine that was similar to what Russia wanted—asking for a stop to the fighting, areas watched by the United Nations, and votes in places controlled by Russia.

Last December, Prabowo also met a top Russian security official in Jakarta to talk about military cooperation. This was one of the highest-level Russian visits to Southeast Asia since the Ukraine war began.

During next week’s visit to Russia, Prabowo and Putin will talk about working together in different areas, including defense, transportation, and education.