‘A loss for human rights’: with eye on China, US opens its arms to Indonesia’s Prabowo
- The United States has lifted a 20-year ban on the Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, whom it once accused of a role in riots that killed over 1,000
- Experts say the move is aimed at balancing China’s power in Southeast Asia
Prabowo’s spokesman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak on Thursday said the minister had received an invitation from his American counterpart, Defence Secretary Mark Esper, to visit the US. The meeting would take place next week, from October 15-19, to continue “detailed discussions in the area of bilateral cooperation in the area of defence”.
“In accordance with the principle of non-aligned politics…without any involvement in military alliances with any country, but maintaining the same closeness with all countries, the Indonesian Minister of Defence, Prabowo Subianto, has been actively conducting defence diplomacy to various countries including the United States,” said Dahnil in a statement.
On Wednesday Irawan Ronodipuro, foreign affairs spokesman for Prabowo’s Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), told This Week In Asia “the ban has been lifted” and Prabowo would meet US Defence Secretary Mark Esper “sometime in November”.
Indonesia “equally values both American and Chinese military ties” and its foreign policy had always been “free and active” and would “continue to be so”, said Ronodipuro.