US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero told a press conference in Washington that she visited Indonesia from May 17-21 to lay the foundation for the visit of Obama to the country.

“In anticipation and preparation of the president’s trip, I was in Indonesia mostly to meet with senior government officials but also to meet with NGOs and civil society to discuss global issues that the US and Indonesia can partner together on,” she said.

It was not immediately clear if Obama would come with his family but US media have reported that his daughters and wife will accompany him on the two-day trip to the country where he spent part of his childhood more than 40 years ago.  

“One of the key goals of my trip was to engage with government officials on how our democracies can cooperate to support and strengthen the democratic institutions in the region. And this would all be part of the US-Indonesian comprehensive partnership that we are entering in and that the president will be launching,” Otero said.

She said she was very impressed with Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, saying that it is an organization that believed very strongly that violent extremism was not the way to proceed and stated very clearly that there were other ways in which we could resolve issues and problems around the world.

She agreed that Indonesia could become a model for democracy in the Muslim world.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah, however, said he could not confirm the date of the visit by Obama as announced by Otero.

He said the visit would see the two leaders launch the strategic partnership, which includes cooperation in science and technology, defense, energy, trade and investment, environment and health without signing any agreements as all necessary agreements had been concluded.

Jakarta and Washington signed several agreements, including investment and technology cooperation under the strategic partnership, last month.

Under the science and technology agreement, the US will provide, among others, funding for research projects jointly conducted by scientists from both countries.

“Obama is coming in June, and he is going to announce extra money. Details of the deal will be announced by our president when he arrives,” visiting US science envoy Bruce Alberts told The Jakarta Post recently.

The US Embassy said the agreement on science and technology had been endorsed in a major speech delivered by Obama in Cairo, Egypt, in February last year.

In his landmark Cairo speech, Obama said, “on science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries and help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs.”

Last month, Jakarta and Washington signed the Overseas Private Investment Cooperation (OPIC), which will help finance US investment in Indonesia and secure financial risk.

The new agreement updates the 1967 pact between the two countries by adding OPIC products such as direct loans, coinsurance and reinsurance to already existing support that US companies may use to invest in Indonesia.

As a start, OPIC is now providing Indonesia with more than US$94 million in support to six projects in the energy, manufacturing and services sectors.

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