JAKARTA - The United States, China and now a resurgent Russia are all competing for regional influence in Southeast Asia, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is shrewdly playing his diplomatic cards among all three suitors. Yudhoyono visited Moscow early this month and signed a wide raft of bilateral agreements, including big new arms, energy and trade deals. Most significant was a broad agreement to develop stronger military cooperation over the period spanning 2007-10, an arrangement that, if fully implemented, promises to tip the region's current strategic balance.
According to news reports, Jakarta has expressed its desire to purchase about US$3 billion worth of Russian armaments, and Moscow has provisionally offered $1 billion in five-year loans to facilitate the purchases. The multibillion-dollar arms deal is expected to be finalized when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Indonesia next June.