Indonesia not hiding its intention to work with Russia – Ukrainian ambassador

Indonesia is not hiding its intention to develop business and tourist contacts with Russia, because such ideological attitudes have been formed in the country for many years.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Indonesia Vasyl Hamianin said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

Commenting on Russian media reports about a 17% increase in trade between Russia and Indonesia in the first quarter of 2024, the diplomat said that "these are not the numbers that we should think about at all."

"Before the full-scale invasion began, the trade between Indonesia and Ukraine was about $1. 3 billion and [Indonesia's trade] with Russia was $3 billion. Now their trade turnover has grown by 17 percent -- this is almost nothing for two such huge countries," Hamianin said.

He noted that Indonesia is currently sending "everything it has" to Russia, because the Russian Federation cannot buy much due to sanctions, and Russia has slightly increased exports of mineral fertilizers and grain.

"Yes, the Indonesians trade with the Russians and say openly that they would like to buy cheap Russian oil, but they do not know how to process it. And the Russian oil processing project, which they implemented, has been suspended for two-and-a-half years due to sanctions. Indonesia wants to work with Russia and it is not hiding this. They want to develop tourism and restore direct flights between Bali and Moscow," the Ukrainian ambassador said.