JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Sumatra island will require 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.11 billion) in reconstruction and recovery funds following a series of deadly floods, senior government officials said.
The death toll from the cyclone-induced floods and landslides reached 950 as of Monday, with 274 people still missing, according to official data. The storms also killed about 200 people in southern Thailand and Malaysia.
Suharyanto, head of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said that the recovery funds needed across the three provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra may still increase as the agency continues to calculate how much damage has been done.
Among the three provinces affected, Aceh needs the most funds, amounting to a total of 25.41 trillion rupiah, Suharyanto said at a cabinet meeting led by President Prabowo Subianto in Aceh province late on Sunday.
North Sumatra and West Sumatra will require 12.88 trillion and 13.52 trillion rupiah respectively, he added.
The reconstruction process will soon begin in some areas in North Sumatra and West Sumatra, which have recovered relatively well, he said.
“So, areas that are already in better condition can start the reconstruction process. We will relocate people living in evacuation centers to temporary houses,” Suharyanto said without providing a timeline.
The temporary houses are 40 square-meter plywood structures built by the government for people affected by natural disasters.
“In the next phase, they will be relocated into permanent houses, built by the housing ministry,” he added.
Responding to the initial estimated recovery cost, Prabowo said his calculations were “similar,” without elaborating whether he will approve the spending or not.
“The point is we have the capacity and we will do it meticulously and do our best to manage it,” Prabowo said.
Prabowo also said that conditions in some areas remained serious, with rice fields, dams and a large number of houses especially affected.
“The local leaders reported that there are quite a number of houses that we must help rebuild,” he said.
“In some places, there are still challenges,” he said, adding that the distribution of medication and clothes to the residents must also become a priority.
![]()
Indonesia says more than $3 billion in recovery funds required after Sumatra floods
Short Url
https://arab.news/rxasm
Indonesia says more than $3 billion in recovery funds required after Sumatra floods
- Death toll from the cyclone-induced floods and landslides reached 950 as of Monday
- The storms also killed about 200 people in southern Thailand and Malaysia
Russia awaits an answer from the US on New START as nuclear treaty ticks down
- Russian leader Vladimir Putin has proposed keeping the treaty’s limits
- US President Donald Trump has said Putin’s proposal sounded ‘like a good idea’
MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday said it was still awaiting a formal answer from Washington on President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly stick to the last remaining Russian-US arms control treaty, which expires in less than two months.
New START, which runs out on February 5, caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
Putin in September offered to voluntarily maintain for one year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the treaty, whose initials stand for the (New) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Trump said in October it sounded “like a good idea.”
“We have less than 100 days left before the expiry of New START,” said Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, which is like a modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials.
“We are waiting for a response,” Shoigu told reporters during a visit to Hanoi. He added that Moscow’s proposal was an opportunity to halt the “destructive movement” that currently existed in nuclear arms control.
Nuclear arms control in peril
Russia and the US together have more than 10,000 nuclear warheads, or 87 percent of the global inventory of nuclear weapons. China is the world’s third largest nuclear power with about 600 warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
The arms control treaties between Moscow and Washington were born out of fear of nuclear war after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Greater transparency about the opponent’s arsenal was intended to reduce the scope for misunderstanding and slow the arms race.
US and Russia eye China’s nuclear arsenal
Now, with all major nuclear powers seeking to modernize their arsenals, and Russia and the West at strategic loggerheads for over a decade — not least over the enlargement of NATO and Moscow’s war in Ukraine — the treaties have almost all crumbled away. Each side blames the other.
In the new US National Security Strategy, the Trump administration says it wants to reestablish strategic stability with Russia” — shorthand for reopening discussions on strategic nuclear arms control.
Rose Gottemoeller, who was chief US negotiator for New START, said in an article for The Arms Control Association this month that it would be beneficial for Washington to implement the treaty along with Moscow.
“For the United States, the benefit of this move would be buying more time to decide what to do about the ongoing Chinese buildup without having to worry simultaneously about new Russian deployments,” Gottemoeller said.
New START, which runs out on February 5, caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
Putin in September offered to voluntarily maintain for one year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the treaty, whose initials stand for the (New) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Trump said in October it sounded “like a good idea.”
“We have less than 100 days left before the expiry of New START,” said Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, which is like a modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials.
“We are waiting for a response,” Shoigu told reporters during a visit to Hanoi. He added that Moscow’s proposal was an opportunity to halt the “destructive movement” that currently existed in nuclear arms control.
Nuclear arms control in peril
Russia and the US together have more than 10,000 nuclear warheads, or 87 percent of the global inventory of nuclear weapons. China is the world’s third largest nuclear power with about 600 warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
The arms control treaties between Moscow and Washington were born out of fear of nuclear war after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Greater transparency about the opponent’s arsenal was intended to reduce the scope for misunderstanding and slow the arms race.
US and Russia eye China’s nuclear arsenal
Now, with all major nuclear powers seeking to modernize their arsenals, and Russia and the West at strategic loggerheads for over a decade — not least over the enlargement of NATO and Moscow’s war in Ukraine — the treaties have almost all crumbled away. Each side blames the other.
In the new US National Security Strategy, the Trump administration says it wants to reestablish strategic stability with Russia” — shorthand for reopening discussions on strategic nuclear arms control.
Rose Gottemoeller, who was chief US negotiator for New START, said in an article for The Arms Control Association this month that it would be beneficial for Washington to implement the treaty along with Moscow.
“For the United States, the benefit of this move would be buying more time to decide what to do about the ongoing Chinese buildup without having to worry simultaneously about new Russian deployments,” Gottemoeller said.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.