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JAKARTA: Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks in Indonesia with President Prabowo Subianto and his defense minister on Tuesday, as Moscow and Jakarta seek to boost defense ties.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in the great power competition between the United States and China.
Shoigu, Russia’s former defense minister and now secretary of its Security Council, is seen as influential in the decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022 and is a staunch ally of President Vladimir Putin.
He met Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin for a courtesy call in the capital Jakarta on Tuesday morning, Indonesia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Prabowo then received Shoigu at the presidential palace on Tuesday afternoon, the presidential palace said in a statement.
“This visit marks an important moment in strengthening bilateral relations between Indonesia and Russia, particularly in the fields of security and defense,” the statement said.
“They discussed various strategic issues related to bilateral relations and regional security.”
The palace said the visit opened up “broader opportunities for future cooperation” with both sides committed to “strengthening their strategic partnership.”
Recently inaugurated Prabowo has pledged to be bolder on the world stage and visited Moscow in July for talks with Putin.
In November, Indonesia and Russia held their first joint naval drills.
Russia sent three corvette-class warships, a medium tanker ship, a military helicopter, and a tugboat for the drills held in the east of Indonesia’s main island Java.
Jakarta has billion-dollar trade ties with Moscow, yet major arms imports have stalled in recent years after Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched its offensive on Ukraine.
Still, since becoming defense minister in 2019, Prabowo has kept alive a $1.1 billion Russian fighter jet deal agreed a year earlier, despite the reported threat of US sanctions.

SEOUL: South Korea’s ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing his final impeachment hearing on Tuesday before judges decide whether to formally remove him from office over his disastrous martial law declaration.
Yoon’s short-lived suspension of civilian rule plunged democratic South Korea into political turmoil, and he was removed from office by parliament in December.
After weeks of fraught impeachment hearings at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, Tuesday’s proceedings began at 2:00 p.m. (0500 GMT) but Yoon was not present, an AFP journalist in the courtroom said.
In opening remarks, Yoon’s defense team cited a 2024 US Supreme Court ruling, Donald Trump v. the United States, arguing that the ousted president cannot be punished for “exercising his core constitutional powers.”
That ruling “should be considered in the context of impeachment proceedings,” Yoon’s lawyer Lee Dong-chan said.
In response, prosecutor Lee Gum-gyu spoke emotively about his son, an active duty soldier he said would have been forced to participate in Yoon’s martial law.
“As a citizen and a father, I feel a sense of rage and betrayal toward Yoon, who tried to turn my son into a martial law soldier,” he told the court.
Thursday’s session is Yoon’s last before the eight judges go behind closed doors to decide his fate.
A number of lawmakers from his ruling People Power Party were in attendance.
Yoon is expected to deliver a closing argument in his defense, with representatives of parliament given time to present the case for his removal.
Outside the court, pro-Yoon protesters chanted “Drop impeachment!”
Some held signs denouncing the Chinese Communist Party and North Korea – which some of Yoon’s supporters have accused, without evidence, of interfering in recent South Korean elections to the benefit of the opposition.
Others held signs saying “Stop the Steal,” echoing US President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud when he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
A verdict is widely expected in mid-March.
Previously impeached presidents Park Geun-hye and Roh Moo-hyun had to wait 11 and 14 days, respectively, to learn their fates.
If Yoon is removed from office, the country must hold a fresh presidential election within 60 days.
The 64-year-old has also been behind bars since he was arrested last month on charges of insurrection, for which he could be sentenced to life in prison or even face the death penalty. His trial began last week.
Much of the impeachment trial has centered on whether Yoon violated the constitution by declaring martial law, which is reserved for national emergencies or times of war.
The opposition has accused the suspended president of taking the extraordinary measure without proper justification.
Yoon’s lawyer Kim Hong-il insisted last week that “the declaration of martial law was not intended to paralyze the state.”
Instead, he said, it was meant to “alert the public to the national crisis caused by the legislative dictatorship of the dominant opposition party.”
Yoon’s lawyers have also argued that his martial law declaration was necessary to investigate unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud in last year’s parliamentary poll.
A survey by polling company Realmeter released on Monday said 52 percent of respondents support Yoon’s formal removal from office.
But a Gallup poll, released last week, showed 60 percent in favor and 34 percent against his impeachment.