Jokowi is the first foreign leader Xi has received since the Beijing Winter Olympics in February of the year, as the country enforces a strict “zero COVID-19” policy.

Jokowi visited the country not just for economic purposes but also to express gratitude for China’s pivotal role in supplying Indonesia with COVID-19 vaccines early on in the pandemic, through both sales and donations.

Xi quickly okayed Jokowi’s request for COVID-19 vaccines as the deadly virus rampaged across the world in 2020. While many advanced countries refused to share their abundant vaccine stocks, President Xi demonstrated generosity even though his nation was still struggling to contain the pandemic.

The early deliveries of tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses from China helped Indonesians endure the health crisis, although many Indonesians were doubtful about their efficacy as compared to Western vaccines. Indonesia may have not taken economic recovery measures as quickly as it did if China had turned down its request for vaccines.

President Jokowi was on an East Asian tour that also took him to Tokyo and Seoul.

In their bilateral talks, Jokowi and Xi discussed a wide range of issues, such as China’s readiness to import up to 1 million tons of crude palm oil from Indonesia and other agricultural products. They also witnessed the signing of several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on vaccine development, genomics, green development, cybersecurity capacity building and marine development. They also witnessed the signing of an MoU on continuing cooperation between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum.

“China is Indonesia's comprehensive strategic partner. We must fill this partnership with cooperation that is beneficial for our country, and at the same time for the region and the world," said Jokowi.

China is among the top three biggest investors in Indonesia. In the first half of this year, it invested US$1.4 billion, up 40 percent year-on-year (yoy). Trade between the two countries totaled $124.3 billion in 2021, a 58.4 percent increase from the 2020 mark. In fact, China has been Indonesia’s largest trading partner for the past nine years.

At the meeting in Beijing, Jokowi also raised issues surrounding the Jakarta-Bandung high speed rail project. It was originally scheduled to start operations in 2019, but now it is expected to finish in June 2023 at the earliest and 23 percent over budget from the planned $6.09 billion. China Construction Bank, the government's partner in the project, had reportedly asked Indonesia to take responsibility for cost overruns in the project.

We hope the two leaders have reached an agreement to overcome the rising costs and ensure that there will be no more delays or additional costs in the landmark project.

Jokowi has extended the people’s xie xie – Mandarin Chinese for “thank you” – message to Xi, and it seems both nations expect their good rapport to continue to flourish.