Indonesia’s new leader drives for engagement with China before going to the US

After signing $10 billion worth of new deals at a business gathering in Beijing on Sunday, Indonesia’s new leader said that the country should work together with China instead of fighting it. He said this before leaving for the U.S.

President Prabowo Subianto told the group that his country wants to help China become both an economic and a “civilizational power.”

“We need to show that working together, not against each other, is the way to peace and prosperity in this day and age,” he said.

Subianto finished the first part of his first trip abroad since becoming president three weeks ago. Next, he is going to Washington, D.C., where the U.S. government is fighting China’s rise. After that, he will go to Peru and Brazil for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 meetings.

Along with political, economic, maritime, and people-to-people sharing, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Saturday to strengthen their relationship. They will add security as a fifth “pillar” of cooperation. In 2025, they agreed to have the first meeting of their foreign and military ministers together.

“There is no doubt about Indonesia,” Subianto said. “We have never been part of any group, and we have always liked and respected all the world’s great powers.”

In the South China Sea, China has been arguing over territory with its Southeast Asian neighbors. Indonesia has stayed out of these conflicts. China and Indonesia don’t have a formal dispute, but Indonesia said that its patrol ships frequently pushed a Chinese coast guard ship away from an Indonesian energy company ship that was doing a seismic survey less than a month ago.

As they have done in other parts of the world, Chinese companies have put a lot of money into mining in Indonesia. There is also Indonesia’s first high-speed train, which runs from Jakarta to Bandung and is 142 kilometers (88 miles) long. It opened last year with help from China.

But a flood of cheap Chinese goods has hurt Indonesia’s clothing makers badly, forcing companies to close and leading to calls for import taxes. The government has tried to keep domestic producers satisfied without making the country’s biggest trade partner angry.