JAKARTA: China’s top diplomat on Thursday met Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his successor Prabowo Subianto as Beijing seeks to boost its regional influence.
The meetings come after Prabowo visited Beijing this month where Chinese President Xi Jinping commended ties with Jakarta, laying out a vision for regional peace as tensions rise between Beijing and other Southeast Asian countries — including the Philippines over the disputed South China Sea.
Indonesian defence minister Prabowo stormed to a first-round majority victory in Indonesia’s presidential polls in February. He has expressed support for developing closer relations with Beijing.
China’s Wang Yi also met Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi earlier on Thursday before visiting Widodo, more popularly known as Jokowi, at the presidential palace and then Prabowo at the defence ministry, AFP reported.
Retno said Jokowi and Wang expressed their desire for regional peace and stability, and repeated demands for a de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
She told reporters after the meeting that the president stressed no one would like to see any escalation. China and Indonesia’s positions are the same on this issue and the president also conveyed his belief that Beijing would also use its influence to prevent escalation.
China, Indonesia Joint Military Drills
Prabowo’s media team released a statement after the meeting with Wang that said that both discussed potential joint military exercises, before later revising the statement to remove any mention of that subject.
Indonesia’s defence ministry issued a separate statement stating the two sides discussed training cooperation and joint drills, without specifying details.
Indonesia is an important member of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN. Some countries like the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam have claims in the South China Sea that conflict with China’s own claims there.
Prabowo said in a later statement that it was a great honour for him to welcome Wang.
Wang, quoted in the same later statement, expressed gratitude for Prabowo for the meeting and congratulated him on his election win.
