Pope Francis is set to meet President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday, after the 87-year-old appeared in good health and strong spirits when he arrived in Jakarta to launch a grueling Asia-Pacific tour.

The head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics is on a three-day visit to Indonesia devoted to interfaith ties, before he travels to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore on the longest trip of his papacy.

There are concerns around the impacts of the 12-day tour on his health.

But the pontiff appeared to start strongly as he offered smiles when he arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday morning and then met a group of orphans, migrants and homeless people in the afternoon, AFP reported.

"I thank you for coming on this journey, thank you for the company. I think it is the longest one [flight] I have done," he told reporters after his 13-hour flight from Rome.

The pope is scheduled to meet President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the State Palace on Wednesday, in the first major set piece of his tour.

He will then give a speech to officials and diplomats, in which he is expected to touch on religious harmony in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

"This is a very historic visit," Jokowi, who leaves office next month, told reporters on Tuesday.

"Indonesia and the Vatican have a similar commitment to peace and brotherhood."

After meeting the President, Pope Francis will hold a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order to which he belongs, at the Holy See's mission in Jakarta.

In Wednesday afternoon, the pope will try to energize the local Catholic community with an address at the Our Lady of the Assumption cathedral, more commonly known as Jakarta Cathedral.

The pope will then end his day with a meeting with young people who are part of a global network of schools aimed at helping disadvantaged children, which he established in 2013.

Catholicism is one of the six officially recognized religions in the nation, and its adherents represent fewer than 3 percent of the Indonesian population, or around 8 million people, compared with the 87 percent, or 242 million people, who follow Islam.

Francis’s trip to Indonesia is the third ever by a pope and the first since John Paul II visited in 1989.

Originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID pandemic, the visit takes place just three months before Francis’s 88th birthday.

He had not traveled abroad since visiting Marseille in France in September last year.

Accompanying him to Indonesia are his personal doctor and two nurses, which Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said was standard procedure, adding that no extra precautions had been taken.