The prime minister has labelled Russia’s push for stronger military ties with Indonesia “propaganda”, after Moscow’s ambassador to Indonesia said Australia has “no cards” to play in that relationship.
The government has been under pressure from the Coalition, which has been demanding a briefing on reports Russia wants to base aircraft in Papua province, Indonesia, and accusing Labor of “deception and trickery” on a national security issue.
The defence intelligence publication Janes first broke the story on Tuesday, reporting that Moscow had launched an official request to base Russian aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base at Biak Numfor in the Indonesian province of Papua, only 1,400 kilometres from Darwin.
Though Defence Minister Richard Marles quickly clarified that there was “no prospect” of Russian aircraft being based in Indonesia, questions have swirled over whether a request was ever made by Russia, even at a junior level.
So far, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Mr Marles have refused to confirm or deny whether Russia made a request, side-stepping the questions.
Indonesian officials have also not publicly denied that a request was made.
Confusion escalated after Labor frontbencher Murray Watt told Sky News on Sunday that Russia never made a request, and compared Coalition demands for a briefing to asking for a briefing on the “Loch Ness monster”.
“There is no proposal from Russia to have a base anywhere in Indonesia in the way that [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton and his colleagues have been claiming over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
On Monday, he stood by his claim that the Coalition’s request for a briefing was akin to asking for a briefing on the Loch Ness monster.
But when pushed on ABC Radio National to clarify his comments, Senator Watt refused to repeat his claim that Russia never made a proposal.
The prime minister was asked at least five times this morning whether the reports of a request had truth, which he would not directly answer.
Mr Albanese accused Russia of wanting to spread propaganda in Australia and again drew attention to what he said was the opposition leader “verballing” Indonesia’s president last week.
Asked whether he knew if Russia had made an approach, Mr Albanese refused to answer, instead saying “I am anti-Russia”.
“The Russians want propaganda to be promoted by Australians,” he said.
“I have no wish to help promote Russia’s propaganda messages and I would suggest that that is not in Australia’s national interests either.”
Labor mocks Coalition briefing request
A week on, the reports of Russia’s plans continue to cause political turmoil in the middle of Australia’s federal election campaign.
The government has sought to turn the issue back onto Mr Dutton, after he wrongly claimed the Indonesian president had responded to the story, and later admitted he made a mistake.
Senator Watt said it showed he was unfit to be prime minister.
“Indonesia has made very clear this is not happening. Frankly, I think it is bizarre the opposition want to keep reminding people of possibly Peter Dutton’s lowest moment of what is a low campaign,” he said.
Mr Albanese also mocked the Coalition’s demands for a briefing.
“I’m waiting for them to ask for a briefing on who faked the Moon landing,” he said.
But Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman claimed Senator Watt’s comments were at odds with comments by other ministers, and the government must clarify what it knew and when it learned it.
“Yesterday, cabinet minister Murray Watt said ‘there is no proposal from Russia to have a base’ in Indonesia,” Mr Coleman said in a statement.
“Today, Senator Watt failed to repeat that statement despite being asked directly during an interview on ABC Radio National.”
Mr Coleman said Labor was “desperate” to avoid scrutiny on the issue.
“The Albanese government doesn’t want to come clean on what it knows — or doesn’t know — about any request from Russia. It has repeatedly refused to say what it knew about any Russian request — until Senator Watt’s statement yesterday.”
Moscow weighs in, accusing both major parties of ‘heating up’ the situation
Responding to Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia Sergei Tolchenov also penned a letter to the editor of the Jakarta Post in recent days, accusing both major parties of playing the “Russian card” for electoral purposes.
“It is clear that the leaders of the two main political parties, replacing each other in power and calling it democracy, are now trying to outdo each other, heating up the situation,” he wrote.
“They stop at nothing, and the time has come to play the so-called ‘Russian card’.”
Mr Tolchenov said Australia had no say over Russia’s bilateral “integral” military engagement with Indonesia.
“Canberra’s national interests cannot extend to the territory of neighbouring sovereign states that pursue active and independent policies.”
He invoked US President Donald Trump, declaring: “You have no cards” — a reference to Mr Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the 500-word op-ed, the ambassador did not address whether a request to Indonesia was ever made.
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