bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Amy Sood

Indonesian leader Prabowo Subianto and US president-elect Donald Trump expressed admiration for each other during a phone call the former made to congratulate the Republican on his return to the White House.
Prabowo arrived in the United States on Monday following a state visit to China, where he met President Xi Jinping and signed US$10 billion in new deals at a business forum in Beijing.
The 72-year-old shared a video of his conversation with Trump on Instagram and expressed his desire to meet in person.
“I would like to call personally on you wherever you are, I’m willing to fly to congratulate you in person, sir,” Prabowo told Trump, who replied: “We’ll do that anytime you want.”
Prabowo will meet outgoing US President Joe Biden on Wednesday to hold talks on strengthening bilateral cooperation, the White House said in a statement.
In the three-minute video clip of the phone call, Trump said Prabowo was doing an “amazing” job leading Indonesia, adding he would like to make a visit to the Southeast Asian nation “sometime”.
The 78-year-old also praised the Indonesian president’s English speaking skills.
“Your English is so good – very good, the English,” Trump said, prompting Prabowo to explain that his “training is American”.


This is Prabowo’s first foreign trip since being sworn into office in late October. The former defence minister appears eager to enhance Indonesia’s global presence, having travelled to more than a dozen countries during his tenure as president-elect from April to September.
His visits to both China and the US lend to Jakarta’s long-standing non-aligned approach to foreign policy, which Prabowo has committed to maintain amid rising tensions between the two world powers.
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump did not visit Indonesia and earned a reputation for his haphazard Asia policy, notably skipping consecutive East Asia and Asean summits from 2018 to 2020.
Prabowo, a former military general, has some attachment to the US.
He graduated from high school at the American School in London, where his family lived in self-exile due to his father’s political differences with Indonesia’s first president Sukarno in the 1960s.
Prabowo returned to his home country and graduated from the Indonesian Military Academy in 1970 and served in Kopassus, the Indonesian special forces, during Suharto’s authoritarian regime.
He received special forces training in the US at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg (renamed Ft. Liberty in 2022) and officer training at what was then Fort Benning in Georgia (now Ft. Moore) in the 1980s.
But Prabowo was discharged from the military in 1998 following allegations of involvement in the abduction and torture of political activists during protests against Suharto.


Both the US and Australia banned him from entering due to human rights abuses he was accused of committing during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor – travel bans that were only lifted upon him becoming defence minister in his predecessor Joko Widodo’s cabinet in 2019.
While allegations of rights abuses have persisted, Prabowo has denied them and has never faced formal charges.
After more than a decade as Indonesia’s nearly man, he won the general election in February by a landslide, a victory largely attributed to tacit support from Widodo, whose son ran alongside Prabowo as vice-president.
Widodo defeated Prabowo in the country’s last two presidential elections and stepped down this year after completing his constitutionally mandated two terms in office.
Activists and academics in Indonesia have expressed concerns about democratic backsliding during Widodo’s tenure, particularly regarding the weakening of state institutions like the anti-corruption agency and judiciary, fears they believe may persist under Prabowo.


Asia-Pacific to see slowing economic growth amid trade tensions, policy uncertainty: Apec

China or the US? The world need not choose a hegemon

KFC Indonesia closes more stores as anti-Israel boycott causes surge in loss

Trump showers praise on Indonesia’s Prabowo during congratulatory call

Indonesia

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto reviews the honour guard during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on November 9. Photo: EPA-EFE

As Trump returns, Asia prepares to pay the price for reprise of ‘America First’ policy

Donald Trump’s return to the White House signals that America’s experiment with isolation is in fact a long-term directional change. Photo: TNS

A ship at the container terminal in Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Trump has pledged to impose a 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries. Photo: Shutterstock

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump during a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in February 2020. Photo: AFP

Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters

A test-fire of the new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on October 31. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

THAAD interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, in September 2017. Photo: Reuters

UK Defence Secretary John Healey, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles meet in London in September. Photo: Pool via Reuters

Philippine Navy Fast Attack Interdiction Craft Lolinato To-Ong passes by a Chinese Navy ship during a Philippine military multi-service joint exercise on Wednesday at Loaita island in the disputed South China Sea. Photo: AP

A couple walk on a hill called ‘Teletubbies Hill’, a locally popular tourist attraction, as the chimneys of Suralaya coal power plant looms in the background, in Cilegon, Indonesia. Photo: AP

As Marcos faces the Trump test, can Philippines count on continued US support?

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at last month’s Asean summits in Laos. Photo: Reuters

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, visit the tomb of his father after a mass to commemorate All Saints’ Day on November 1. Photo: AFP

Donald Trump speaks with then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila in 2017. Photo: AP

The front page of a newspaper in Manila on Thursday reports the re-election of Donald Trump as US president. Photo: AFP

Will Prabowo’s Brics ambitions reshape Indonesia’s ties with Russia and China?

Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July. Photo: Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Two Russian corvettes are seen arriving in Shanghai for a port call last year. Photo: CCTV

Indonesia’s new Foreign Minister Sugiono arrives at Kazan Airport in Russia on October 22 for last month’s Brics summit. Photo: Brics-Russia2023.ru/Reuters

Prabowo shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in April. Photo: China Daily via Reuters

A Chinese coastguard ship pictured sailing through the North Natuna Sea on October 25. Photo: Indonesian Maritime Security Agency/Handout via EPA-EFE

What Trump 2.0 means for India’s trade with US, China-West balancing act

A kitemaker displays a kite decorated with an image of former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Amritsar, India, on Wednesday. Trump has won the US presidential election, according to US media. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embrace after giving a joint statement in New Delhi in February 2020. Photo: AP

A post on X by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, congratulating Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election. Photo: X/@narendramodi

This Week in Asia

Politics

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

US Elections

The Indonesian leader shared a video of the conversation, where he received warm compliments from the incoming US president


The Indonesian leader shared a video of the conversation, where he received warm compliments from the incoming US president.
