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Jokowi to host Malaysian PM in inaugural visit
President Joko Widodo is to welcome the Malaysian leader on Friday in his first official visit overseas since assuming office in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin holds a folder after unveiling his new Cabinet members at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya on March 9, 2020. (AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is to receive Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during an official visit to Jakarta on Friday, officials have said, nearly a year after a planned visit was shelved because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The occasion will be Muhyiddin’s first official overseas visit since assuming office in March last year, upon which Indonesia extended an invitation for an in-person meeting.
As two countries with a special relationship often referred to as serumpun (kinship), newly elected leaders from both sides have traditionally visited the other as the first order of foreign business after assuming office. Jokowi visited Kuala Lumpur in 2015 on his first overseas bilateral visit.
However, the pandemic and the ensuing global travel restrictions resulted in a delay in Muhyiddin’s own visit to Jakarta, although officials have ensured that this week’s courtesy call will be carried out under very strict health protocols. This includes keeping the premier’s entourage as small as possible to avoid possible viral transmission.
Malaysia’s top diplomat Hishammuddin Hussein and a small delegation of senior officials will be meeting Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi for talks on Thursday before the prime minister’s arrival later that day.
Muhyiddin is expected to meet Jokowi on Friday morning at the Presidential Palace.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said that since the meeting would be conducted on a one-to-one basis, the two leaders would be able to broach a wide range of subjects.
