Jakarta. Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Sergei Tolchenov recently said that the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet deal with the Southeast Asian nation remained “on the table”.

In 2018, Indonesia decided to buy 11 units of the Russian-made Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets worth $1.1 billion. Russia is still waiting for updates on the Su-35 deal, which has been hanging in balance since 2020. Indonesia at the time reportedly gave up on buying the fighter jet due to the pandemic-induced budget constraints. 

The Indonesian Air Force revealed in 2021 that they had scrapped the Su-35 deal in favor of US-made F-15s and France’s Rafale warplanes. The odds for Indonesia to buy Russian jets got even slimmer after the government announced last year the final procurement of 18 additional French-made Rafale fighter jets, solidifying the total order count to 42.

While the Su-35 deal has been in limbo for a while, Russia is still keeping its fingers crossed that Indonesia will buy its fighter jets.

“The [Su-35 deal] is not canceled. It is still on the table,” Tolchenov said in an interview with the Jakarta Globe earlier this week.

“But we will continue the negotiations one day,” Tolchenov said.

Russian state-run news agency TASS reported that Moscow’s arms exports to Indonesia topped $2.5 billion between 1992 and 2018. The delivered arms included BMP-3F infantry fighting vehicles, SU-30MK2 planes, as well as Mi-35 and Mi-17 helicopters.

The Globe asked Tolchenov whether Moscow considered President Prabowo Subianto’s military background as a good building block to stronger bilateral defense ties over the coming years. Prabowo is a retired army general.

“I hope [that our defense ties will grow stronger], but it is an important aspect of our bilateral relations. … We also see the Indonesian [military] use Russian arms, and this proves that we have really high-quality arms. If Indonesia is interested, we are ready to negotiate,” Tolchenov said.

Indonesia has been trying to modernize its defense equipment. Prabowo’s campaign manifesto even stated that he would gradually increase the budget meant to modernize  Indonesian military technologies should he win the election. This year, the Defense Ministry and military get a budget ceiling of Rp 165 trillion ($10.1 billion), and about Rp 18.3  trillion will go to the Indonesian Air Force.

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