Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House yesterday, shortly after offering his congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his first overseas visit since taking office.
In remarks prior to their bilateral meeting, Biden congratulated Prabowo on his election victory in February, and expressed hope that the two nations would advance a “free and open Indo-Pacific with ASEAN at its center,” according to the U.S. State Department’s official transcript. He also hailed the possible cooperation in “fighting the climate crisis,” building “a secure and resilient supply chain,” and deepening security cooperation.
Biden also said that the two leaders would discuss the conflict in the Middle East and the situation in the South China Sea.
Prabowo responded that he considered the U.S. “a very great friend.”
“I will work very hard to strengthen Indonesian-United States relationship, and I would like to work towards this end that we have a strong cooperation,” he said.
This took place shortly after Prabowo spoke with Trump by phone to congratulate him on his recent election victory. While the anticipated meeting with Trump could not be arranged, the Indonesian leader took the unusual step of posting a video of his full call with the president-elect, in which he congratulated him on his election victory last week and expressed his wish to meet in person. In one curious exchange, Trump told Prabowo, “your English is so good” and Prabowo replied, “Yes sir, all my training is American.”
Prabowo’s official visit to the U.S. was the second stop on an ambitious five-nation tour that also includes China, Peru, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, his first overseas sojourn since being sworn into office last month. During his stop in Beijing, Prabowo signed $10 billion worth of agreements, focusing on infrastructure, green energy, digital technology, and agriculture, as well as signing a controversial cooperation agreement on the South China Sea.
Biden’s comments to Prabowo at the White House reflect Washington’s interest in consolidating and expanding its partnership with Indonesia, as a potentially important partner in its attempts to foreclose China’s growing power and ambition.
As I noted last month, however, the fact that Prabowo included both China and Indonesia on his first overseas itinerary suggests that he intends to make few alterations to the country’s non-aligned foreign policy, and will make a “proactive effort to maintain a balance between the two emerging power configurations.”
Beyond this, Jakarta hopes to bolster economic cooperation in order to support the new administration’s domestic political objectives. In particular, it is interested in pursuing a free trade deal that will allow it to benefit from the generous electric vehicle (EV) subsidies contained in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, and support its ambition of becoming an EV-manufacturing hub. Prabowo will also likely continue his predecessors’ push for access to U.S. weapons systems, both to fortify the Indonesian military and to help develop a local defense industrial base, although the likelihood for progress on either of these accounts is slim.
After leaving Washington tomorrow, Prabowo will fly to Lima for the APEC Summit, which runs until November 16, before traveling on to Rio de Janeiro to attend the G-20 Summit on November 18-19 and finishing his trip in London.