September 17, 2024
JAKARTA – Defense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto was in Vietnam on an official visit from Friday to Saturday in what appears to be a continuation of his ASEAN tour earlier this month.
The former Army general, who will be inaugurated as Indonesia’s eighth president on Oct. 20, departed on Friday to Hanoi, where he was welcomed by an entourage led by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Do Hung Viet.
Prabowo later met with President Tô Lâm to discuss the bilateral relations in various sectors, including national defense.
During his visit, he conveyed his concern and condolences to the people of Vietnam affected by Typhoon Yagi, which hit the country on Sept. 7.
The typhoon is deemed the most powerful storm to hit Asia this year, and it has reached a toll numbering hundreds across southern China and Southeast Asia.
“Indonesia is ready to help in whatever capacity Vietnam might need. I hope those affected by the disaster have the strength to recover,” Prabowo said during the meeting, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.
Prabowo and Lâm also discussed ways to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which has posed a problem for both countries.
Meanwhile, President Lâm conveyed his interest in inviting Indonesian troops to help train Vietnamese personnel for the United Nations peacekeeping force.
As of July, Indonesia has provided over 2,700 personnel to UN peacekeeping operations since 1957, making it the sixth-largest contributor globally.
Vietnam started providing UN peacekeeping troops in 2014.
Prabowo continued his Vietnam visit on Saturday in a meeting with National Assembly chairman Tran Thanh Man to discuss bilateral issues, saying Indonesia “sees a lot of potential to deepen [its] defense relations with Vietnam, who will surely provide a positive contribution for the stability of the [Southeast Asian] region”, according to his office.
Later on Saturday, Prabowo met with Prime Minister Pham Minch Chinh, calling Vietnam a “good friend and partner of ours”.
The defense minister also asked for Vietnam’s continuing support for the next ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Military Medicine, to be cochaired by Indonesia and the United States for the 2024-2027 term.
Prabowo’s Vietnam visit came after his three-day tour on Sept. 5-7 to five ASEAN countries, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, in that order.
Before leaving for Vietnam, the defense minister visited Indonesia’s future capital Nusantara in East Kalimantan to attend the last meeting of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Onward Indonesia Cabinet.
Experts viewed the president-elect’s recent ASEAN tour as an effort to extend Indonesia’s “good neighbor policy” and reassure regional neighbors that they remained a priority for Prabowo, despite his engagements with global powers.
Shortly after his victory in the 2024 presidential election was confirmed, Prabowo visited major powers including China, Japan, Russia and Australia.