Interests, not values, underpin Asia’s ambivalence about Russia

HAVING FOUND itself at a crossroads, Indonesia is attempting to go in every direction at once. On March 2nd it joined much of the world in deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A few days later its president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, said Russia and Ukraine were both friends of Indonesia. By the middle of April, against a domestic backdrop of protests against rising costs, a fierce debate had broken out within government about whether to take advantage of the crisis by buying discounted Russian oil, with payments perhaps routed through India.

Indonesia is in a tricky position. This year it holds the rotating presidency of the G20, a club of the world’s biggest economies. Jokowi does not want to humiliate Russia. Nor does he want to preside over a high-profile flop: Western leaders have indicated they could ditch the main meeting in Bali in November if President Vladimir Putin turns up. “Our strategy is Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’,” says Evan Laksmana, an Indonesia expert at the National University of Singapore, meaning, “just hope that something gets resolved in the next month or so”.