China, Indonesia Firms to Ink $10 Billion of Deals, Prabowo Says

Chinese and Indonesian firms will sign business agreements totaling more than $10 billion on Sunday, President Prabowo Subianto said as he met his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing during a state visit.

Prabowo, on his first foreign trip since his inauguration last month, said the relationship between China and Indonesia is getting “stronger and stronger,” according to a pool report of Saturday’s welcoming ceremony. Xi said Prabowo’s decision to visit China first is a reflection of the Indonesian leader’s emphasis on developing ties between the two sides.

Xi and Prabowo presided over the signings of several documents and memorandums of understanding between their governments. They include the joint development of fisheries and oil and gas in maritime areas of overlapping claims between the two countries as well as on maritime safety, and deepening cooperation on the blue economy, water and mineral resources and green minerals.

China, which was also Prabowo’s initial foreign destination as president-elect in April, is a priority as Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and the source of more than $7 billion of investment in commodity processing capacity and infrastructure.

“Indonesia considers China not only as a great power, but as a great civilization,” Prabowo said. “It is only natural that now in the present situation — geopolitical and geoeconomic — that Indonesia and China have become very close partners and in many, many fields.”

Prabowo said he will attend a meeting on Sunday between the Indonesian Trade and Industry Chamber of Commerce and top Chinese corporations, where billions of dollars of deals will be inked.

“This is a very significant milestone in our relationship,” he said. “Over a decade of comprehensive strategic partnership, our cooperation stretches all sectors.”

Prabowo will be in Beijing until Sunday before heading to the US to meet President Joe Biden and, possibly, his successor Donald Trump, balancing relations with the world’s two biggest economies.

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