After serving as deputy PM for two years, Wong replaced his mentor Lee Hsien Loong in May of this year. As Singapore’s fourth prime minister, Wong has been building strong personal bonds with other leaders of the 10-member ASEAN. The grouping’s support will provide Wong with political capital in the face of his first general election, to be held no later than November next year.

For Prabowo, Singapore plays a strategic role as the largest source of foreign direct investment for Indonesia and one its most important trading partners. In 2023, Singapore poured US$15.4 billion in FDI into Indonesia. There is always the suspicion here that many foreign investors are Indonesian companies that mainly operate in Indonesia but are listed in Singapore.

Singapore received 2.3 million Indonesian visitors last year, and 1.4 million Singaporeans visited Indonesia. For many Indonesians however visiting Singapore is becoming less affordable due to its stronger currency and increasing prices. They prefer other ASEAN tourist destinations such as Vietnam.

In their bilateral summit on Wednesday, the two leaders discussed trade and investments. They committed to facilitating more trade, more investment flows and exploring new areas of cooperation, like digital technologies.

They also focused on energy security, especially how to step up collaboration, particularly in cross-border energy exports and carbon capture and storage projects in the coming years.

From time to time the two countries have to confront bitter relationships especially at the grassroots level due to a lack of trust. Singapore also faces the same situation in its ties with Malaysia. But Singapore has always proved that it can stand firmly on its own feet. Singapore is small in geographical size but gigantic in the economic size for neighbors to reckon with.

With due respect to other ASEAN members, the five cofounders of ASEAN, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, are the core of the regional grouping and Singapore always plays a constructive role. Prabowo should hold regular mini-lateral summits with those neighbors, especially on regional defense and security.

As an old proverb about good neighbors goes, love your neighbor, yet pull not down your hedge. This wisdom also applies to the relationship between Indonesia and Singapore. Let’s assume both Prabowo and Wong know it very well.