Indonesia, which is considered 1 of the rising powers, has just begun with Russia the first joint sea exercises. The president of the archipelago of Southeast Asia, Prabowo Subianto, seeks to strengthen ties with Moscow.
Indonesian authorities are trying to keep good relations with Washington and Beijing. The largest economy of the region besides refuses to take sides in the conflict in Ukraine.
The late sworn president of Indonesia, Subianto, however, promised to prosecute a more assertive policy internationally. In July, Indonesian leader visited Moscow. Now the five-day exercises have begun, which are divided into 2 phases and which take place at the naval base in Surabai and in the Java Sea.
Russian forces sent 3 corvette-class warships, average tanker, military, chopper and tow truck. On Sunday there was an authoritative welcome of Russian ships entering the port. Analysts say that common maneuvers mean “a crucial change in Indonesia’s abroad policy, which seeks to strengthen alliances with major powers.
A 73-year-old erstwhile general serving as president of Indonesia spoke in July during a visit to Russia that he wanted to deepen relations with this country. "We consider Russia a large friend and I would like to proceed to keep and strengthen these relations," he declared in a conversation with Vladimir Putin, Prabowo. Although any members of the ASEAN block, a group of Southeast Asian states to which Indonesia belongs, held joint exercises with Russia in 2021, Jakarta had never done so before.
Russia and Indonesia have a commercial relationship. Jakarta imported large amounts of Russian weapons until the annexation of Crimea. In 2019 a contract was retained to bring in Russian fighters worth 1.1 billion USD at that time. Despite threats of US sanctions, the authorities did not retreat from the contract.
Currently, the media reports US sanctions on six Malaysian companies due to the creation of alleged facilitations for Russian military-industrial operations during the conflict in Ukraine.
According to the U.S. State Department press release of 30 October this year, these sanctions are part of a broader strategy to hinder Russians' access to abroad technologies and resources by targeting 3rd country entities suspected of supporting Moscow's interests.
"This aims to hinder the avoidance of sanctions and to mark entities from many 3rd countries, including China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and the United arabian Emirates", the Communication states. The sanctions will hit companies associated with microelectronics and numerical control elements that have been identified by the Office of manufacture and safety of the U.S. Trade Department, EU, UK and Japan.
These Malaysian companies include: Zeolite Mansford Sdn Bhd, Centrina United Sdn Bhd, Gynec Carbon Sdn Bhd, Moralability manufacture Sdn Bhd and Melix Global Sdn Bhd. The embargo included a full of 120 people and entities in different countries to disrupt the supply chain of key articles for the Russian army.
So far, the Americans have not succeeded in preventing the Russians from utilizing Western production components, including processors in the indigenous weapons industry. Moscow effectively circumvents sanctions.
Bloomberg claims that a company based in Mumbai, Shreya Life Sciences, exports NVIDIA AI chips from Malaysia to Russia, and shipping papers show that 834 Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers were besides uploaded. Key articles are besides imported through India.
Sources: malaymail.com / laveat.net
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