"Most importantly, we have managed to establish robust and extensive contacts with the administration of the new Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who took office last October," Galuzin said.
The ambassador underscored the importance of the first bilateral meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Widodo on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing in November 2014, which was held in a "constructive atmosphere and allowed to establish the contact between the two leaders."
According to the diplomat, Putin and Widodo agreed to enhance trade and economic ties and broaden scientific and technical cooperation, as well as expand political dialogue.
Russian-Indonesian economic cooperation includes a number of promising and significant projects, Galuzin said.
Russian aluminum giant RUSAL is considering building a bauxite and alumina industrial complex in Indonesia's West Kalimantan. Russian truck manufacturer KamAZ is looking into the possibility of supplying trucks to the country and Russian Railways is building a special-purpose railroad in East Kalimantan.
Moscow is also considering the possibility of supplying Indonesia with passenger aircraft, including the Sukhoi SuperJet-100 and Irkut MC-21.
The diplomat noted that cooperation in marine and shipbuilding infrastructure also has good prospects. Indonesia wants to become a strong maritime power and Russia is offering many cooperation possibilities in this field.
Russia and Indonesia may carry out another intergovernmental meeting, the ambassador said. He stressed that the work of the previous commission in February 2014 was very fruitful, with the two nations signing documents on promoting cooperation in energy and creating working groups on industry, trade, transport and investment.
Galuzin stated that recent display of friendship and cooperation, mutual understanding and assistance between the countries was in December 2014, when more than 70 Russian rescuers using two planes, an Il-76 cargo plane and a Be-200 helped Indonesia in the search for AirAsia's Airbus A320-200, which crashed into the Java Sea on December 28.
