November 7, 2024
JAKARTA – President Prabowo Subianto and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong came away from their first official meeting on Wednesday with a commitment to deepen cooperation across key sectors and a pledge to boost “resilience amid an uncertain geopolitical environment”.
Wong was in Jakarta for what his office described as an “introductory” meeting, despite it being his third time this year visiting Indonesia. Both he and Prabowo have only recently been elected leaders of their respective countries.
The President hosted his guest for lunch and bilateral talks at Merdeka Palace on Wednesday, where they reaffirmed the “strong friendship” between Indonesia and Singapore, emphasizing shared goals in resilience and development.
In a statement issued by the presidential press bureau, Prabowo highlighted five priority areas for bilateral cooperation: defense, the economy, green technology, food security and human capital development.
In defense, the leaders agreed to fully implement the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), including provisions for joint military training exercises.
“Singapore and Indonesia are committed to implementing our defense cooperation framework, including arrangements for military training areas,” Prabowo said, underscoring the shared desire to bolster security cooperation in a region fraught with strategic challenges.
The DCA is one in a set of deals under what Singapore describes as the expanded framework agreements, which former leaders Lee Hsien Loong and Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed after years of fraught negotiations.
On economic cooperation, Prabowo expressed hope that Singapore would enhance market access for Indonesian products through regulatory alignment, the Palace statement read.
Both leaders also committed to expanding Singaporean investments in Indonesia’s priority sectors, including renewable energy, industrial downstreaming, food security, digitalization, semiconductors, health care and the development of Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara.
Read also: Singapore ‘deeply invested’ in Indonesia’s success, PM says
The Palace also detailed a review of several joint projects under development, including cross-border electricity interconnections, green hydrogen production and solar power plants. Furthermore, both leaders agreed to pursue technology partnerships in carbon capture and storage, a field with potential to mitigate the region’s carbon footprint.
Singapore’s Foreign Ministry noted in a statement that both Prabowo and Wong “commended the significant progress in bilateral cooperation in the emerging priority area of the green economy”.
The leaders then discussed ways “to expand cooperation in other priority areas of human capital development, people-to-people exchanges and food security”.
Specifically, Prabowo and Wong discussed transfers of technology and expertise to boost urban agriculture and food estates, according to the Indonesian statement.
Read also: Indonesia collaboration beneficial for ASEAN: Singapore PM
In addition to bilateral topics, Prabowo and Wong exchanged views on regional and global security. They emphasized the importance of peace and stability amid escalating geopolitical tensions.
Indonesia and Singapore, attached at the hip in maritime Southeast Asia, have had their share of disagreements, from cross-border haze to Jakarta’s difficulty in repatriating parked funds in Singapore, obfuscating tax earnings.
However, thanks to Prabowo and Wong’s predecessors, Lee and Jokowi, the ASEAN neighbors have witnessed a period of warmth underpinned by their close personal relationship.
In a limited press conference with senior journalists upon his arrival on Tuesday, Wong said he was keen to build on his predecessor’s close friendship and “write a new chapter” of the relationship with Indonesia.
“Singapore is deeply and fully invested in Indonesia’s success,” he said in Jakarta.
As part of his introductory visit, Wong also met with Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Ahmad Muzani and Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Speaker Sultan Bachtiar Najamudin.
Both sides lauded the robust state of bilateral relations and looked forward to the 8th Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat in Singapore next year, the first of its kind between Wong and Prabowo, Singapore’s foreign ministry stated.