Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks in Indonesia with President Prabowo Subianto and his defence minister on Tuesday, as Moscow and Jakarta seek to boost defence ties. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in the great power competition between the United States and China. Shoigu, Russia’s former defence minister and now secretary of its Security Council, is seen as influential in the decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022 and is a staunch ally of President Vladimir Putin.
