Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has failed to deny whether he knew about Russia’s request to access an Indonesian air base as early as March, as he skirted a reporter’s question.
Earlier this month, defence publication Janes reported that Moscow had requested permission to base military aircraft at Manuhua Air Force Base north of Papua, only 1,300 kilometres from Darwin.
The Albanese government has repeatedly rejected calls for more information about the reports and has refused to clarify whether a request had been made.
On Monday, The Australian reported Labor had known of the Russian request since March after a meeting in February between the Indonesian Minister of Defence, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu.
During a press conference on Monday in the electorate of Banks in Sydney’s south west, a reporter attempted to seek out a definitive answer if the reports were true, but the Prime Minister refused to directly confirm or deny whether Labor had known since March about the request.
“I don’t go through – again, I refer to my previous answer. What adults do on intelligence is receive them and not do it – conduct it through the media,” Mr Albanese said.
The reporter pressed once more, suggesting it was important for the Prime Minister to be transparent with the Australian people.
Mr Albanese took the opportunity to land another blow on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, claiming again he “verballed” Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto when he claimed the President had confirmed the reports.
“Adults when it comes to intelligence, act like adults,” he said.
“They don’t engage in seeing every international issue as a domestic political opportunity.
“What we don’t do, the key issue here, is that Peter Dutton verballed the Indonesian President. That is the issue here. He verballed the Indonesian President.”
Last week the Indonesian Defence Minister claimed the Janes report was “absolutely untrue” and that the country would “not allow foreign military bases on our soil”, while an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman kept the door open to a productive relationship with Russia after the two held their first joint naval exercises in November.
“As a country with a longstanding tradition of a free and active foreign policy, Indonesia will receive and permit military aircraft or vessels from other nations on peaceful missions to visit Indonesia,” the spokesman said.
