JAKARTA: As Indonesia’s president- choose Prabowo Subianto prepares to enter workplace in October, he looks set to take a more confrontational stance in international policy, saying that diplomacy, negotiations, and the” Eastern way” have helped to relieve tension.
Prabowo, 72, won February’s public vote by a large percentage along with his running- partner Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest child of cheerful President Joko Widodo.
Prabowo claimed that Southeast Asia had experienced wars, foreign colonization, and internal politics-related interference in an interview with Qatar news agency Al Jazeera on Sunday ( May 13 ).
But, he added,” We solved it without foreign interference, we talked, we met”.
The comments were made in response to a question about what significance did the term” Eastern Way” had for him.
The former commander of the special forces said Indonesia was quite open to both China and the United States as to expanding its influence in the region.
” We respect you and are thankful for your previous help”, he said.
” We welcome the US, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Europeans. The fact that we are friends with you does n’t mean we ca n’t be friends with China, India, Russia”, he added, invoking Indonesia’s tradition and history of non- alignment.
Prabowo said at a local community last November that Indonesia would continue to maintain good relations with both China and the US and that it was committed to its non-alignment policy.
In April, he visited China, Japan and Malaysia on his first international trip since winning the national poll.
During the interview, he denied political complacency, saying that Indonesia had seen years of peaceful transfers of state, despite issues that needed to be tackled, quite as rife corruption.
In the state of Papua, where military separatists have been fighting with security forces for years, Prabowo added that “our regional passions” will guide decisions made.
After a picture of a person being tortured by soldiers that emerged in March, troops were detained.