The friendly and cooperative relations between China and Indonesia have entered a new stage.
Liu Xiaowei, China Institute of International Studies.
On February 14, local time, it was held in Indonesia**. According to the results of a quick vote count by a number of polling agencies in Indonesia, the current defense minister Prabowo Subianto and the eldest son of his running mate Jokowi**, the mayor of Solo, Jibran Rakabumin Raqqa, won the election by a large margin. Prabowo declared the victory, becoming the leader of the largest country in Southeast Asia.
According to Prabowo's previous election statement, the new ** will continue Jokowi's policy line in general, maintain the continuity and stability of domestic and foreign policies, and continue to develop friendly and cooperative relations between China and Indonesia.
Indonesia's current Defense Minister Prabowo, center, arrives at polling station No. 33 in Bogor on February 14.
Three competitions finally won.
Prabowo came from a powerful family, and his grandfather and father were both well-known in Indonesia. Prabowo was the son-in-law of former Suharto and has also held important positions in the military for many years. Prior to this campaign, Prabowo had twice competed for the post of DAP nominee in 2014 and 2019 with Jokowi, who was nominated by the DAP for the post of **, but both failed. In 2019, Prabowo chose to accept Jokowi's invitation to take the current post of defense minister, which also accumulated rich diplomatic experience for Prabowo.
In addition to his deep political capital, Jokowi's support was also a key factor in Prabowo's "one-round victory". In October 2023, Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled to relax the age limit of 40 years old for candidates for the presidency and vice-president, and Prabowo immediately invited Gibran to run as a running mate in 2024**. As a member of the Democratic Struggle Party, Jokowi did not explicitly state his support for the party's coalition candidate, but stressed that as an incumbent **, he should support any ** candidate for the sake of the national interest. Although Jokowi did not declare his support for Prabowo, his actions such as arranging his son's partner Prabowo and interacting with Prabowo in the same frame on several occasions have already indicated the preferred position of the popular **.
In fact, Jokowi and Prabowo each took what they needed in this **: Jokowi hoped to pass on his policy ideas through his son and complete his unfinished business such as moving the capital; Prabowo can take advantage of Jokowi's popularity and Gibran's youthfulness to gain more voters' support.
The new ** will maintain the continuity of domestic and foreign policies.
Prabowo has positioned himself as Jokowi's "heir" and has repeatedly stated that he will continue to implement Jokowi's governing policy, push the country into the "fast lane of development", and strive to achieve the vision of "Indonesia 2045**".
In terms of domestic affairs, the Prabowo portfolio emphasized supporting the development of the digital economy, including supporting start-ups in the digital economy, cultivating digital economy talents, strengthening the construction of digital infrastructure between cities, preventing cross-border dumping of goods, and promising to invest more funds in technology and digitalization in the next five years to build a digital ecosystem. Continue and strengthen Jokowi**'s "downstream" industrial policy, expand the scope of the ban on mineral exports, include copper, tin, agricultural products, and marine products in the ranks of "downstream", and require that mined minerals must be processed in the country to cultivate the domestic processing industry. Emphasis will be placed on fair competition, infrastructure construction will be strengthened, foreign investment will continue to be expanded, and young people will be supported in employment and entrepreneurship. Explicit support for the plan to move the capital. Emphasis was placed on poverty alleviation, and it was proposed to provide free lunches to primary and secondary school students throughout the country. Gradually increase the defense budget and strengthen Indonesia's paramilitary forces.
On the diplomatic front, Prabowo hopes to build on Jokowi's stellar diplomatic achievements. We are committed to pursuing a foreign policy of goodwill and are committed to enhancing Indonesia's international influence. Prabowo inherited an all-round good-neighborly and friendly foreign policy of "too few friends for a thousand and too many enemies for one." Maintain Indonesia's "free and active" foreign policy, implement Indonesia's traditional multilateralism, adopt a neutral and non-aligned foreign policy, maintain a strategy of balancing major powers, and emphasize not being subordinate to any camp. Inherit and carry forward the international route created by Jokowi**, and enhance Indonesia's international influence as an emerging power and a medium-sized country.
The friendly cooperation between China and Indonesia will continue to be positive.
China and Indonesia are both large developing countries and important emerging market countries, with a wide range of common interests and a vital future. China has maintained the status of Indonesia's largest partner for 10 consecutive years and has become Indonesia's second largest foreign investment destination. The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway was officially put into operation, which has become another important milestone in the cooperation between the two countries. Jokowi's super popularity also proves that the pragmatic, friendly and cooperative cooperation between China and Indonesia has won the support of the people.
In the face of internal and external changes, ensuring stable economic growth and meeting employment needs is Prabowo's top priority, so continuing to deepen economic cooperation with China will be one of the key directions of the new world. The foreign policy concept of economic development as the core orientation has determined that Prabowo will continue to maintain friendship with China. During the election campaign, he repeatedly mentioned that China and the United States are friends of Indonesia and that they want to be friendly with China and the United States, and said that he will continue to adopt a neutral foreign policy. In addition, there is a lot of room for cooperation between China and Indonesia in the policy areas that Prabowo focuses on, such as infrastructure investment and poverty reduction. Deepening pragmatic cooperation and building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future is the aspiration of the people and the trend of the times.
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