Russia reportedly requests access to Indonesia’s Papua air base 1300 kilometres from Darwin

Russia is reportedly keen to establish a base for its air force just 1300 kilometres from Darwin, with Australian officials now investigating the situation.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with participants in Arctic expeditions for children organised by Rosatom, in the Arctic Circle port city of Murmansk on March 27, 2025. (Photo by Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP)

Russia reportedly wants to establish a base for its air force in Papua just 1300 kilometres from Darwin, with Australian officials now investigating the situation.

On Tuesday, military website Janes reported Russian officials approached Jakarta and requested its Aerospace Forces be given access to Biak Numfor, less than two hours flying time and approximately 1300 kilometres north east of Darwin.

According to Janes,the request included special permission to station long-range aircraft at Manuhua air force Base, situated on the south side of the island.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he seeking further information about the report’s claim.

“We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region – our position is we stand with Ukraine,” Prime Minister Albanese said.

“We regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, who’s attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called the move by Russia “very, very troubling”, describing Mr Putin as a “murderous dictator”.

“This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn’t have forewarning about this before it was made public,” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton said Mr Putin’s potential presence in Indonesia would be “deeply destabilising”.

“My message to President Putin is that he’s not welcome in our neighbourhood,” Mr Dutton said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he did “not want to see” Vladimir Putin’s Russia have influence in the region. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

It was not specified what aircraft model Russia intended to deploy on the island.

Currently, the air base is home to the Indonesian Air Force’s Aviation Squadron 27, with a number of commercial airlines also known to use the airfield tarmac.

If the Kremlin successfully land the arrangement, Russian forces would achieve close proximity to several key US and Australian military bases in the Territory.

Such a move would bring key military bases across the Top End within close proximity of Russian forces.

Across the Top End, thousands of ADF, US Marines and US air force personnel are based across RAAF Base Darwin, RAAF Base Tindal, Robertson Barracks and HMAS Coonawarra.

Institute of Public Affairs director of law and policy John Storey said the report was “an alarming development”.

“For decades people have been calling for the strengthening of the north of our country – very little has been done even though threats have escalated quite dramatically in the last few years,” he said.

IPA director of law and policy John Storey called the matter an “alarming development”.

“We’ve seen it (before) where China will reach out to a South Pacific island and suddenly Australia feels completely exposed, vulnerable and clueless.”

Mr Storey said it was too early to know what Moscow’s objective would be with such an air base.

“It’s not quite clear what their end game would be – potentially opportunism to try and test the alliance between the US and its Asia Pacific allies, like Australia,” he said.

“But this is why Australia can’t just be reliant on the US.”