Vice President Jusuf Kalla arrived in Tokyo on Saturday, kicking off a 10-day overseas trip that will take him to Washington to meet United States President Barack Obama.

Officials at the vice presidential secretariat said Kalla would meet Obama during the 57th National Prayer Breakfast organized by the US Congress, in which Kalla would deliver a speech titled “Drafting Peace in Asia: The Indonesia Experience” on Thursday. Obama will join other world leaders in the annual forum.

The encounter with Obama will make Kalla the first Indonesian official to meet the new US president, who spent four years of his childhood in Jakarta.

Prior to his inauguration, Obama briefly spoke with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – including a few words of Indonesian – on the phone when the Indonesian leader was on a stopover in Seattle en route to Nagoya, Japan, from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima last November.

The White House has not arranged a formal agenda for Kalla, but talks are underway between officials of the two countries for a meeting between him and his US counterpart Joe Biden.

During his two-day stay in the US, Kalla is also scheduled to attend a luncheon with the US-Indonesia Society.

In October last year, Kalla received a member of the fund raising team for Obama, Ed Cunningham, for a one-hour meeting at the vice presidential office in Jakarta.

Kalla is visiting Japan to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Soka in Tokyo during a ceremony on Monday.

The university will honor Kalla for his contribution to peace negotiations for various conflicts in Indonesia, including the Aceh rebellion, which lasted four decades.

Other world leaders who have been awarded the academic title include former South African president Nelson Mandela, Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, former Indian president KR Narayanan, former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and former Philippines president Fidel Valdes Ramos.

On Sunday, Kalla will visit Zoorasia in Yokohama; a zoo that exhibits endemic Indonesian animals, including the Sumatran tiger, tapir and orangutan.

The Vice President will also visit an underground agricultural center in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.

Upon completing his US trip, Kalla will fly to Belgium to receive the Commandeur De L’Ordre De Leopold medal for his contribution to improving ties between the two countries.

Kalla is also slated to pay a courtesy visit to Crown Prince Philippe Leopold Marie and Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy.

Kalla will then visit the Netherlands on his way back to Jakarta.

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