Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Indonesian President Joko Widodo an investment in the country’s planned new capital, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement from the Russian embassy in Jakarta. The Russian president told Widodo that he visited Ukraine and Russia simultaneously on June 29-30 and that Russia’s state-owned railway company could choose to invest in Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara, to build transport and logistics infrastructure. Putin said Moscow could also participate in Widodo’s plan to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan on the Borneo island. He made comments during this…
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to invest in the country’s planned new capital, Bloomberg News Citing a statement from the Russian embassy in Jakarta.
The Russian president told Widodo that he visited Ukraine and Russia simultaneously on June 29-30 and that Russia’s state-owned railway company could choose to invest in Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara, to build transport and logistics infrastructure.
Putin said Moscow could also participate in Widodo’s plan to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan on the Borneo island. He made the comments during Jokowi’s June 30 visit to Moscow.
Relations between the two countries warm up
The proposal is widely seen as a sign of warming ties with Southeast Asia’s largest economy as the United States and its allies seek to isolate Russia from the world economy due to its invasion of Ukraine in February.
The new capital will be called Nusantara Construction started in August After the Covid-19 pandemic stalled its development for quite some time. Potential investors include Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group to help build a sustainable city from scratch in the Borneo rainforest.
Another potential investor, Japan’s SoftBank Group, has pulled out of the project.
Nuclear energy investment in Indonesia
In addition to infrastructure projects, Russian energy companies are also keen to operate in other areas of Indonesia, particularly in developing nuclear power, given that atomic energy is a key part of Indonesia’s net-zero emissions plan.
Indonesia is under pressure from the United States and other countries to prevent Putin from attending the G20 summit scheduled for mid-November in Bali. The Kremlin said on June 27 that the Russian leader would indeed attend the meeting, heralding what could be a dramatic first meeting between Putin and his critics in 19 countries, including the United States and the European Union.
