Russia And Ukraine In War, Indonesia's Trade Billions Of US Dollars Are Under Threat?

JAKARTA - Indonesia is known to have quite good diplomatic relations with Russia and Ukraine. Now, the two countries are in open military conflict.

As a friendly country, Indonesia is deemed necessary to ensure that the pair of thousand countries remain at peace, at least in order to secure Indonesia's economic interests.

Citing data reported by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), it is known that Russia is one of the important trading partners. This is reflected in the trade balance surplus of US$240 million throughout 2021.

This figure was obtained from the export value of 1.49 billion US dollars compared to imports of 1.25 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's mainstay commodities for export to Russia include animal fats and oils, food, clothing, and spices. Meanwhile, imports consist of mineral fuels and aircraft components.

For Ukraine, Indonesia recorded a deficit of around 625 billion US dollars last year due to more imports with 1.04 billion US dollars compared to exports of 416.99 million US dollars. The RI-Ukraine trade book consists of animal fats and oils, cocoa, paper, and other foodstuffs.

It seems that Russia and Ukraine have forgotten that neighboring countries need to maintain or even enhance trade relations. Because, economic cooperation is the best way to prevent war in the future.