April 2, 2024 (EIRNS)—Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on April 1, where they deliberated on the two nations’ substantial economic relationship, as well as strategic questions. Prabowo, who won election on Feb. 14 and will be sworn in in October, called China a powerful partner of Indonesia, as he expressed that current Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s friendly and close relationship with China will continue, reports the April 2 China Daily. Further, Prabowo will meet with China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang and Defense Minister Dong Jun.
China has the world’s largest population, 1.416 billion people; Indonesia has the world’s fourth- largest population, 281.6 million people. The two countries’ physical economic ties are growing. In 2023, China invested $7.3 billion into Indonesia, which represented 43% of China’s total investments in Southeast Asia for the year (there is a separate category called “construction"). In October, China completed the construction of the 142-km Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail line, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, which cut the travel time between the two large Indonesian cities from more than three hours to just about 40 minutes.
