Reports Putin is eyeing an Indonesian air base leave Canberra scrambling

By Stephen Dziedzic and Bill Birtles, ABC

Australian officials are scrambling to confirm whether Russia is pushing to base long-range aircraft in Indonesia, in a move that would send alarm bells ringing in Canberra.

The US military 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.

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 stir strategic anxiety in Canberra.

Analysts said Russia could also use the Indonesian base to monitor US defence facilities in the Western Pacific, including in Guam.

The Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters that Australian officials were seeking more information from Jakarta.

"We as a government have reached out to confirm those reports and to understand whether or not those reports are accurate and what the status of those requests from Russia are," she said.

The minister also called Russia a "disruptive power and that President Putin wants to play that role."

Defence Minister Richard Marles also said that Australia had "engaged" with Indonesia on the report, noting that Indonesia had not yet officially responded to the request.

'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," 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 had been working to rapidly expand defence and security ties with Indonesia, but Moscow had 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," 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.

- ABC