Indonesia’s new president headed to China for a state visit yesterday, starting a five-nation tour that could include a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump as he seeks to balance relations with major powers on his first foreign trip.
Prabowo Subianto, a 73-year-old ex-general inaugurated last month, has pledged to position Jakarta more prominently on the world stage while sticking to its traditional non-aligned foreign policy.
Before departing, Prabowo said he would first visit Beijing, where he is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), then travel to Washington at the invitation of US President Joe Biden.
Photo: AFP
The trip would include visits to Peru for the APEC summit and Brazil for the G20 summit of major economies, before ending in the UK, where he would meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he said.
“I believe this demonstrates the high regard in which Indonesia is held and the importance of inviting Indonesia to participate in bilateral and multilateral meetings,” broadcaster Kompas TV quoted Prabowo as saying.
“This is an honor for us, and we will maintain good relations with all parties,” he said.
It is unclear if his Washington visit would include a meeting with Trump, but Prabowo’s presidential spokesman Hasan Nasbi on Thursday said that “there is a possibility” talks with him were on the table.
Prabowo has promised to be bolder on foreign policy than his predecessor Joko Widodo, who focused more on domestic issues such as the economy.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS