Jokowi seeks support from China for Indonesia's new capital
Beijing's new foreign minister vows Belt and Road projects to finish 'on schedule'
JAKARTA -- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo met with China's new foreign minister, Qin Gang, in Jakarta on Wednesday, seeking stronger economic ties with Indonesia's largest foreign investor, including in Nusantara, the new capital that Widodo is planning on the island of Borneo.
On the first stop of his first Southeast Asia tour since his appointment in December, Qin arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday and met Widodo and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Wednesday. The leaders discussed a wide range of economic cooperation, including Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. Qin was there at the invitation of Retno.
During the meeting, Widodo stressed the need for a deeper economic partnership between the two countries, including completion of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project, construction of a green industrial park in Kalimantan and building the new capital, Nusantara, according to a statement released by the Indonesian government on Wednesday.
"Both sides will continue to enhance the level of economic, trade and investment cooperation," Qin said at a joint news conference. Without saying how much China would put into projects or naming Nusantara, Qin pledged that Chinese companies would expand their investment in Indonesia in the areas of green infrastructure and the digital economy.
In the final quarter of last year, China was Indonesia's top investor, although Singapore was No. 1 for all of 2022. China's recent projects in the country include the high-speed railway. However, there are growing concerns over its safety, mounting cost and whether it will be completed on time. Trial runs for the railway are scheduled for around the end of May. But industry experts have expressed doubts that the time table for the July launch of the rail service can be met.
During the briefing, Qin pledged that the Belt and Road flagship projects will be built "on schedule," without naming specific projects in Indonesia.
In addition to infrastructure, the two countries discussed cooperation in health care. Indonesia suggested such cooperation could take place in research and development of vaccines and genomics, and to enhance production capacity for medical raw materials.
The leaders also discussed the situation in Myanmar, whose military seized power in February 2021. Indonesia holds the ASEAN chairmanship this year and has made Myanmar a priority for the bloc.
Retno said, "Indonesia expressed appreciation for China's support for the Five-Point Consensus." This plan includes a call for the immediate cessation of violence in the country and was agreed at the ASEAN summit held in April 2021, two months after Myanmar's military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The consensus has not been implemented.
Against a backdrop of growing geopolitical uncertainty, Qin said, "The countries of the region should not be forced to pick sides," adding, "We believe that Indonesia and ASEAN will make their judgments and choices independently and autonomously in the spirit of the fundamental force of the region's stability, development and prosperity [in the region]."