High-Speed Partnership

Over the last three years, Russia and Indonesia have experienced a surge in their trade and economic partnership. In 2022 the volume of trade turnover increased by 40%, compared to the previous period, and in 2023 it grew by 22%, climbing by 11% more the next year. Based on the results of the first quarter of 2025, the trade turnover increased by another 40%.

It is noteworthy that Moscow's trade with Indonesia is growing at almost the same rate, and Moscow is Russia’s largest regional economy. Over the first half of 2024 the volume of the mutual trade of the Russian capital with this South-Eastern Asian country grew by two times compared with the corresponding period of 2023. At the same time, Moscow’s non-resource, non-energy exports increased nearly tenfold.

Special Year of 2022

Cooperation between the two countries began exactly 75 years ago. During this time there were ups and downs, Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, became friends with Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia. The Soviet Union politically supported the Indonesian people in their fight for independence, it was one for the first countries to recognize Indonesia as a sovereign state, and Soviet specialists built the “Friendship” hospital, a stadium, many roads and interchanges, as well as many other facilities.

But the surge of 2022 became special due to several factors, the first one being general destabilization in the world. The old unipolar system, with the West on one side and all others on the other, is disintegrating. New strong economies have emerged that can no longer be content with serving Western interests. It has become perfectly clear that within this framework, the principles of democracy, equality, liberalism, and assistance to poor countries, promoted by the West, are not effective. All declarations of this kind serve only as a cover for the consolidation of inequality.

The second factor is the beginning of a process of growing feelings of national dignity and sovereignty. It is reminiscent of the similar shifts in global sentiment following World War II. Back then, it had led to the collapse of the colonial system.

The current stage of sovereignty is a natural continuation of the decolonization of the last century. Not all the tasks of liberating the peoples were fully resolved at that time. Essentially, in the XX-th century, the colonial system was reborn into a postcolonial one. The West's dominance has only strengthened in the global economy, finance, and technology, and through this dependence, also in politics.

Finally, Russia's promotion of the idea of a polycentric world order also played a role in the current global changes. And it's not that Russia provoked these changes. Moscow's interests, like those of most countries, are contradicted by the West's desire to dictate terms. In 2012, Alexander Dugin, philosopher and political scientist, formulated the concept of a multipolar world.

The main message of the concept is that there should not be a single center of influence that imposes its interests on everyone and dictates its own rules. Every state has the right to respect, consideration of its interests, and comprehensive development. These and other principles of polycentricity are in line with the aspirations of most states and even a number of international organizations today, for example, EAEU, BRICS, SCO, OAS and others.

The positions of Russia and Indonesia are particularly close. Almost from the day of its foundation, Jakarta formulated the concept of a “free and independent foreign policy”. The concept's meaning lies in the country's desire to cooperate with all international partners, with fundamental and mutual respect of each party's national interests. This applies to both the world's largest powers and small states.

Similar political philosophy, interests and mutual respect of Moscow and Jakarta have resulted in the current “explosive” growth in the relations of the country. Today Jakarta considers Russia to be a “strategic partner with special status”.

This definition was coined by Budi Santoso, Indonesia's Minister of Trade, during his recent visit to Russia. The definition reads as follows: "strategic" means important for steady and stable development of Indonesia. Russia has entered Jakarta's top five partner countries in a number of areas. As for “special status”, this means a tried and true friend, reliable and respected.

“The diplomatic relationship between Indonesia and Russia, including trade and economic cooperation, continues to strengthen in a constructive and positive manner, - Budi Santoso said. – For Indonesia, Russia is more than just an alternative market. Russia ensures our food and energy security”. He also emphasized that the economies of the two countries are “complementary” – both countries exchange marketable products and competencies.

Large and Rich Market

Indonesia's consumer market is one of the largest in the world, fourth after China, India and the USA. Indonesia has shown high growth rates over the past 15 years. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an annual average of 4.75% over this period. The country has entered the top twenty largest economies by GDP, and the adopted "Golden Indonesia 2045" program is intended to make it one of the top five largest economies in the world, with a GDP of approximately $30 trillion.

It is a very interesting partner, and soon it will be even more attractive for Russia, following removal of the existing restrictions, hindering development of the Russian-Indonesian cooperation.

As a result of the talks in Saint-Petersburg, the leaders of Russia and Indonesia signed a Declaration on Strategic Partnership, focused on trade and economy. This April a memorandum was signed to provide access of halal Russian products to the markets of Indonesia. By the year’s end, Jakarta plans to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Just this step alone, according to the estimates by Andrei Slepnev, Trade Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission, over the next 3-5 years will double the trade turnover between the EAEU member states, including Russia, and Indonesia.

Last, Indonesia expressed its readiness to transition to settlements with Russia in national currencies. And in June the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Danantara Indonesia sovereign fund signed an agreement to set up a Russian-Indonesian investment platform for €2 billion.

The result of all these steps will be the elimination of constraining factors in Russian-Indonesian cooperation in all areas, including digital and high technologies of particular interest to both states.

Focus On High Technology

“Indonesia is focused on modernizing its economy via effective industrial development, implementation of modern technologies, artificial intelligence and increasing agricultural productivity. These are the specific fields where we have identified strong opportunities for partnership”, — says Artyom Senik, founder and managing partner of DATA ARMS AI Technology group & NPO LABS group of companies.

According to the rating developed by Digital Economy ANO, Indonesia is a Top-10 country for priority promotion of Russian digital solutions.

Of course, entering the Indonesian market won't be easy. IBM, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, ESRI, Autodesk have been operating here for a long time. However, the “special status” of the strategic Russian-Indonesian partnership offers some opportunities to break through. “Indonesian enterprises are seeking alternatives to expensive Western IT solutions”, - says Ivan Dronov, “digital attache” of the Trade Representation of Russia in Indonesia. Along with this, he emphasized, Russian systems, particularly video-analysis systems, are implemented in many countries and highly praised by foreign users.

Moscow, being Russia’s leader in the high-tech and IT sphere, according to experts, has particularly encouraging prospects for expansion in Indonesia. The city is home to the highest number of IT companies in Russia – almost 51 thousand. Last year the city got more than 60 digitalization awards and ranked second in the global rating of smart cities. The Russian capital got 53,9 points out of 60, losing to Singapore just by one tenth of a point. Moscow is implementing about 100 artificial intelligence (AI) projects. AI is already in operation in the spheres of transport, healthcare, education, construction and other areas.

A number of Moscow-based IT companies have entered the Indonesian market. In 2023 Sberbank signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-owned telecommunications company PT Industri Telelomunikasi Indonesia (INTI). The bank will provide assistance in digitalization of the financial sphere, utilizing artificial intelligence technologies.

Data protection solutions by SearchInform company have been listed in the national online directory of Indonesia.

Montrans company is developing its own satellite monitoring system for areas with no cellular service. The Thousand Island Country, as they call Indonesia, has lots of such places.

Softline was the first Moscow company to have established its office in Jakarta for the promotion of promising products and services, including proprietary and third-party ones. The company plans to focus on cyber-security and industry solutions.

These are just some of the Moscow IT companies ready to take part in Indonesia's programs, including, of course, the large-scale project to move Indonesia's capital to the island of Kalimantan to the city of Nusantara. The project is being implemented on an area of ​​324 thousand hectares. The first phase will involve an investment of $35 billion. Edi Prio Pambudi, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of Indonesia, has confirmed that to implement the project, the government plans to engage cutting-edge Russian technologies for digitalization of urban environment management processes.

Alexander Chertkov