President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is to attend two high-level meetings, the ASEAN and G20 summits, with trade tensions between the United States and China high on the President’s agenda.

Jokowi is to be at the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok on Saturday and Sunday, during which he is scheduled to attend a series of ASEAN leader meetings.

The scheduled meetings include ASEAN Leaders’ Interface meetings with youth and business councils, as well as the ASEAN Summit Plenary Session and Retreat.

Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Jokowi said he hoped the ASEAN Summit would unite ASEAN countries in a single stance to safeguard ASEAN’s economy amid tensions between the US and China.

“We have to persuade ASEAN countries to stand united for anticipating [the adverse impacts] of a trade war between the US and China so that the stability of the ASEAN economy will be maintained,” said Jokowi at the Presidential Office in Jakarta. “It is very important for us to persuade ASEAN countries to stand united.”

That statement was later echoed by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir when he said that one of Indonesia’s missions at the summit was to push forward the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — a proposed free trade agreement comprising all 10 ASEAN member states plus Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea.

Kicked off in 2012, negotiations on the RCEP have reached no agreements so far, with resistance from some of ASEAN’s partners, including Japan.

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