Geoffrey Miller: International Geopolitical Analyst on Indonesia's denial of aligning with Russia

An international relations expert says we should believe Indonesia over reports Russia will be setting up a military presence in our region. 

Defence and security website Janes claims Russia has approached Indonesia about basing some planes in the country's south. 

Indonesia's defence minister says the reports are "simply not true". 

International geopolitical analyst Geoffrey Miller told Mike Hosking the nation has very clearly denied the claims. 

He says we should take them for their word, as it wouldn't fit with Indonesia's foreign policy. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Other matters. What do we make of these reports that
the Russians and the Indonesians are cozying up. Russia's looking
to park a little bit of long range airpower we
think about thirteen hundred k's from Australia.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Darwin.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Of course, Putin and Subianto seem to be increasingly friendly.
International geopolitical analyst Jeffrey Millers with U. Jeffrey, very good
morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
They denied all So who do we believe?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, look, there's the old saying from Bismark that never
believe anything in politics until it's been officially been denied.
And yet there has been a categoric denial from Indonesia
on this, and I think we should take them at
their words, Mike, because it wouldn't really fit with Indonesian
foreign policy. They have the foreign policy of non alignment,
and they've conducted military exercises with Russia in the past,

(00:43):
in the recent past, but they've also conducted exercises with Australia,
the US, and China, and I think that tells you
really everything about how they approach the world.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, so we don't need to panic about it. How
would China react if it was true, for example, would
they be bothered by that given their relationship with the war.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I don't think so. As such, it's an interesting question, well,
how China would actually see this look. I think all
of this is just a reflection of the continued escalating
tensions that we're seeing around the region, around the world.
So you know, we should take this seriously. There's probably
something to it. It came out of the James Defense website.

(01:21):
I don't think they've made this up out of thin air.
There must be something to it somewhere. Peter Dutton, though
in Australia, is going to hype this up. He called
it a catastrophic failure. Yes today the fact that Anthony
Albaneze he didn't seem to know anything about it before
James published it, and he is going to hype this
up because we've got the TV debate on tonight and
he's got a vested interest in turning the page, moving

(01:42):
on from some of the gaps in his campaign and
turning the focus to this hard security. But I think
we need to be very careful about calling countries, big
countries and the global South like Indonesia, what they can
and can't do with the military paces. And we should
also remember, Mike that Russia is also part of the
Age of Pacific. They've had a Pacific Week based on
near that of Ostok since seventeen thirty one. We sometimes

(02:03):
forget that Russia is also a native Pacific power as
well as a European one.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Good insighteners always, Jeffrey, appreciate it. Jeffrey Miller, International Geopolitical Analysts,
thirty minutes past seven.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
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