Indonesia's defence minister has assured Australia it will not allow Russian planes to be based in Papua province after a United States media outlet reported that Moscow was pushing to get access to a military base in Papua.
The defence news website Janes has reported that Moscow has launched an official request to base Russian aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base at Biak Numfor in the Indonesian province of Papua.
The Kremlin, when asked about the report that Russia has asked Indonesia for permission to base aircraft in its territory, said there was a lot of fake news around.
In 2017, Russia flew two nuclear-capable bombers on a patrol mission out of the base on what appeared to be an intelligence gathering exercise.
The prospect of Russian military aircraft based so close to the Australian mainland would set off alarm bells in Canberra and cause a furious political debate on the campaign trail.
Australian officials scrambled to verify the reports and on Tuesday evening Richard Marles told the ABC that he'd spoken with his Indonesian counterpart.
"I have spoken to my counterpart, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the minister for defence, and he has said to me in the clearest possible terms, reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true," he said.
The ABC has been told that the Indonesian defence minister told Mr Marles he had not received any Russian request to access the base — although that doesn't rule out the possibility it was raised at a more junior level.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters that Australian officials were seeking more information from Jakarta about the report.
'Not a done deal'
One source in Jakarta played down the likelihood of Indonesia granting the request, saying it would compromise its long-standing foreign policy principles.
Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute told the ABC that Indonesia could well reject the request from Russia.
"This is not yet a done deal, and it may well fall through," he said.
"The Australians, the Japanese and the Americans will be putting pressure on the Indonesians to say no," Mr Davis said.
But he said if Jakarta did give the green light, then more US and Australian military assets would be put in the direct range of Russian military forces.
Australia has been working to rapidly expand defence and security ties with Indonesia, but Moscow has also been drawing closer to Jakarta, with one of Russia's senior military officials Sergei Shogiu visiting Indonesia in February.
And while Russian President Vladimir Putin's main focus remains his war on Ukraine, he's been working to expand military ties further abroad, with Russia and Indonesia holding naval drills in the Java Sea in November.
At the time, Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, Sergei Tolchenov, said the exercises were "a significant event and that "the navies of our countries are ready to enhance mutual trust and understanding to cooperate in different areas".
In July last year, Russia's Defence Secretary Andrei Belousov also held talks with Prabowo Subianto, who was Indonesia's defence minister at the time but is now the country's president.
The Australian government believes both Russia and China are also increasingly focused on the growing US military presence in Darwin and the Northern Territory.
'Not welcome in our neighbourhood'
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it would be a "catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations" if the government had not had "forewarning" about the request before it was made public.
"This is a very, very troubling development and suggestion that somehow Russia would have some of their assets based in Indonesia only a short distance from, obviously, the north of our country," Mr Dutton said.
"We need to make sure that the government explains exactly what has happened here."
When asked what his "message" was to Putin, Dutton replied: "That he is not welcome in our neighbourhood."
"We have an excellent relationship with the Indonesians. I've met with the president, both when he was defence minister and when he was president-elect … Prabowo is a good friend of Australia.
"But my message to President Putin is that we don't share any values with President Putin, and we do not want a presence, a military presence, from Russia in our region."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese didn't say when the government learned about the reported request but said it was still seeking information.
"What we're seeking is proper clarification," he told reporters. "That's the way you deal with international relations."
A spokesman from Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry told the ABC he hadn’t heard about the request, while Indonesia Defence Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Freda Ferdinand Wenas Inkiriwang said he wasn’t “monitoring” the issue.
