President Prabowo Subianto greeting China's Vice President Han Zheng during their meeting after Prabowo's inauguration in Jakarta on Oct 20, 2024. - Reuters
BEIJING: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will visit China this week, Beijing's foreign ministry said on Tuesday (Nov 5), his first foreign tour as he seeks a more prominent position for Jakarta on the world stage.
"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto will pay a state visit to China from Nov 8 to 10," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.
The 73-year-old ex-general was sworn in on Oct 20, pledging to stick to Jakarta's traditionally non-aligned foreign policy while making the world's fourth-most populous nation more active abroad.
Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
On his first planned foreign visits since taking power, Prabowo will also travel to Peru and Brazil for Apec and G20 summits, the foreign ministry has previously said.
He is also expected to go to the United States and Britain, newspaper Kompas reported last month, citing presidential palace sources.
After his February election win, Prabowo used his eight-month transition period to visit more than a dozen countries, including China, to showcase a more active foreign policy than his predecessor Joko Widodo, who focused more on domestic issues like the economy. - AFP
