JAKARTA - Indonesia's President-elect Prabowo Subianto said his upcoming administration would maintain ties with "great friend" Russia after meeting President Vladimir Putin, adding that he hoped for stronger cooperation on defense, energy and education.

Prabowo, who is currently defense minister, is set to take over the presidency from Joko Widodo in October. He is currently on a trip to Moscow and met Putin on Wednesday.

"We consider Russia as a great friend," he said in a statement from the defense ministry.

"I would like to continue to maintain and enhance this relationship. In our history we remember Russia has always helped us in many aspects when we were in difficulties."

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Prabowo also expressed his intent to continue a partnership in defense and nuclear energy, and to send Indonesian students to Russia to study medicine.

Prabowo has said he will forge ties with any country in his non-alignment foreign policy.

Putin was quoted by Russian state news agency TASS Russia as saying Russia was ready to "scale up supplies of agricultural products, implement investment projects in the field of energy, transport, and infrastructure."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by TASS as saying that Indonesia's role in the conflcit in Ukraine is "growing significantly nowadays".

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Last year, Prabowo proposed a peaceful settlement that includes a ceasefire and a demilitarized zone in an address to the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore.