Indonesia will not allow Russian planes to be stationed on its territory, Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles has said, following earlier reports that Moscow had requested permission to access a provincial base in the archipelago.
Marles said he had spoken with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin after defence media outlet Janes reported on Sunday that Russia had requested access to a base in the province of Papua for its military aircraft. The report sparked widespread concern in Canberra.
“He made it unequivocally clear to me that there was no prospect of any Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia, and that the reports of that were just not true,” Marles…