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Prabowo’s East Asia trip betrays Chinese concerns
Prabowo’s visits to China and Japan are being closely watched by the regional security community, which has been left to wonder which direction his diplomatic compass will point once he becomes president.
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Chinese deputy foreign minister Sun Weidong greets Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto on April 1, 2024, after his arrival in Beijing. (The Jakarta Post/Antara)
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hina’s decision to invite president-elect Prabowo Subianto long before his inauguration could be predicated on concerns that he might align closer with the West, analysts have said, as the defense minister spent the second day of his visit deepening defense ties amid heightened regional tensions.
The minister was in Beijing on his first trip since securing victory in the Feb. 14 election, with plans to travel onward to Japan, a close United States ally. Prabowo’s visit is closely watched by the regional security community, which has been left to wonder which direction his diplomatic compass will point once he becomes president.
The trip coincides with a spate of incidents that have inflamed tensions in the wider Indo-Pacific region, from North Korea’s launch of a mid-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan, to heated exchanges between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
It also coincides with plans later this month for Japan, the Philippines and the US to hold trilateral naval patrols in the South China Sea, over which China has made sweeping territorial claims at the behest of other nations.
Japan’s international cooperation agency has also been working on a decade-long plan to support Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in maritime security in the disputed waters, US media reported.
While his Monday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping saw him reiterate a commitment to maintain close ties with Beijing, experts took issue with the “premature” China visit as a sign of concerns he would be more intentional with Indonesia’s delicate US-China balancing act.
“It’s clear that China wants to ensure that Prabowo will remain friendly with Beijing,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a senior international relations analyst with Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
