June 23, 2025
JAKARTA – President Prabowo Subianto emphasized Indonesia’s non-aligned stance at Russia’s flagship economic forum on Friday, stressing that Jakarta will go ahead with its economic ambitions without following the philosophies of “the biggest and most powerful power in the world”.
The age of a multipolar world was emerging, the President insisted, adding that Russia and China have proven themselves as leaders that “never had double standards” and as defenders of “the downtrodden [and] the oppressed”.
Addressing thousands of international delegates at the plenary session of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Prabowo began his speech by introducing himself and apologizing for being nervous in his first address to an international economic forum.
After describing SPIEF as a “strategic” forum to forge trust and score deals in an increasingly complicated geopolitical landscape, the President explained his administration’s priorities: to reach self-sufficiency in various sectors, including food and energy.
He also reasserted Indonesia’s commitment to work with various parties to achieve “the greatest good for the greatest many” and the country’s stance of being non-aligned with any global powers.
“We consider that this world must develop into a multipolar world, and is developing into a multipolar world. The unipolar world is in the past,” Prabowo said.
The President then proceeded by lauding Russia and China, particularly for their roles in helping Indonesia join BRICS as a full member.
“I want to be very frank, in the Global South, I think many will agree with me: Russia and China have never had double standards,” the President said.
In his speech, Prabowo also responded to criticism of his non-attendance at the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Canada to which he was invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
He said that it by no means reflected disregard for the West, describing it merely as a clash of scheduling.
“It’s not because I don’t respect the G7,” the President said. “Don’t read too much into it.”
In its ambitions to be a prosperous nation, Prabowo said Indonesia must be able to industrialize swiftly and adopt what he has dubbed the economic “middle way”; a path that draws inspiration from socialism, capitalism, domestic philosophies and local contexts in its policies.
While Indonesia has vast natural resources, they have so far not been managed well, he explained, suggesting that the failure stemmed from following unsuitable external philosophies.
“In my opinion, every country needs its own economic policy and its own economic philosophy,” he said. “One of the big mistakes of many countries in Southeast Asia is that we tend to always follow the biggest and the most powerful power in the world.”
The speech at the SPIEF plenary session marked the second day of Prabowo’s first official visit to Russia at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, he met with Putin at the Constantine Palace, where the two leaders talked about bilateral issues and interests.
Prabowo noted that relations between Indonesia and Russia continue to improve across various sectors. Meanwhile, Putin welcomed Indonesia’s full membership of BRICS, hoping the Southeast Asian country would make a significant contribution to the group’s activities.
Earlier on Friday, just hours before Prabowo’s address, Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto said that Indonesia and Russia would launch a feasibility study as part of both countries’ cooperation on nuclear energy.
The deal will focus on the construction of small modular reactors with a total capacity of 500 megawatts, as reported by Antara. The feasibility study will be the initial step to preparing the technological and regulatory foundation to push for the development of safe and sustainable nuclear energy in Indonesia, the senior minister said.
