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Indonesia to honor contract for Russian jets — ambassador

Jose Tavares declined to elaborate on specific difficulties that the contract poses, expressing confidence that Indonesia "will in the future continue to have equipment from Russia, including fighter jets"

MOSCOW, October 21./TASS/. The contract for the purchase of Russian Su-35 fighter jets will remain in effect, Jakarta has no plans to scrap it, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Jose Tavares said in an interview with TASS.

"In fact we haven’t cancelled the contact, the contract is there. We will see the right time for acquiring those equipment," the diplomat said.

"We still continue to see that Russia is among the best sources of modernized military and defense equipment. So I don’t see that the contract will terminate, but we have to find the right time to do this," Jose Tavares explained.

He declined to elaborate on specific difficulties that the contract poses, expressing confidence that Indonesia "will in the future continue to have equipment from Russia, including fighter jets".

News about the signing of a $1.1 billion contract with Jakarta for the delivery of 11 Su-35 fighter jets became known in early 2018. In July 2019, former Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi said that the delay in the implementation of the contract was due to the complexity of the trade scheme, which involved both government agencies and companies.

In March 2020, Bloomberg reported that Indonesian authorities decided to give up on plans to implement the Su-35 contract with Russia due to a lack of funds in the budget caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and also due to threats from the US to impose sanctions on Indonesia if the contract was implemented.

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