Indonesia’s president-elect pays 1st visits to China, Japan

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) – Indonesia’s incoming President Prabowo Subianto made his first trips to China and Japan ahead of his inauguration in October.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received Prabowo on Wednesday and they discussed bilateral as well regional issues.

Kishida said Prabowo’s early visit to Japan was "strongly encouraging," Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

He said the two countries share basic values and principles and Japan hopes to further strengthen cooperation with Indonesia in regional and global issues as “comprehensive and strategic partners.”

Prabowo welcomed Kishida’s statement and said friendly relations with Japan would "further strengthen…in various fields."

The two also discussed the situation in the East and South China Seas, North Korea and the situation in Myanmar and said that Tokyo and Jakarta "would continue to cooperate."

Kishida said Japan hopes to contribute to Indonesia’s infrastructure development and energy sector and assured Prabowo of Tokyo’s support for his country’s efforts to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Prior to his visit to Japan, Prabowo flew to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

Xi told Prabowo that China views its relations with Indonesia "from a strategic and long-term perspective, and is willing to deepen all-round strategic cooperation with Indonesia,” said a readout released by Beijing.

Indonesia is one of the important partners of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen a boom in the Southeast Asian nation’s infrastructure, including the recently launched Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway.

Xi said the two countries have made the railway "an exemplar of high-quality bilateral cooperation and entered a new stage of building a community with a shared future."

He emphasized that "strategic independence, mutual trust and mutual assistance, win-win cooperation and fairness and justice" were "key to successful China-Indonesia relations."

He said Indonesia should "firmly follow the development path suited" to its own national conditions while the two sides should "firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests, and understand and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns."

On regional issues, the Chinese leader said Beijing was "ready to work with Indonesia to uphold ASEAN unity and centrality and maintain an open and inclusive regional architecture."

Prabowo pledged to uphold the one-China policy and appreciated that China has "always upheld fairness and justice in international affairs, especially on the Palestinian question," said the official communique from Beijing.

He also met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.

Dong told Prabowo that the Chinese military was "willing to work with the Indonesian military to consolidate their strategic mutual trust, promote joint exercises and training and enhance personnel exchanges to take their practical cooperation to a new height."

The 72-year-old Prabowo won Indonesia’s Feb. 14 general election with a thumping majority and is scheduled to be inaugurated in October when incumbent President Joko Widodo completes his second term.