China-Indonesia cooperation gets boost

That Prabowo Subianto has chosen China as the destination for his first overseas visit after being sworn in as Indonesia's president in October shows the new Indonesian government is keen on strengthening ties with China, boosting regional cooperation and safeguarding regional security. His visit to China from Friday to Sunday is his second this year — he paid a visit to the country as president-elect in March.

During the visit in March, the Indonesian and Chinese sides reached a consensus on further deepening bilateral cooperation. Prabowo had then said that Indonesia is keen on deepening relations with China and will continue then president Joko Widodo's friendly policy toward China.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Tuesday that Prabowo's visit reaffirms Jakarta's commitment to the Sino-Indonesian comprehensive strategic partnership.

The leaders of the two countries are expected to exchange views on major bilateral and international issues during Prabowo's visit and focus on deepening mutually beneficial cooperation across a wide range of sectors.

Cooperation between China, the world's second-largest and Asia's biggest economy, and Indonesia, the largest economy within ASEAN and a member of G20, has been mutually beneficial. The two sides issued a joint statement on strengthening their comprehensive strategic partnership last year, providing important guidelines for deepening cooperation in the future. In fact, Sino-Indonesian cooperation has become a model of mutually beneficial relations.

The two sides have close economic and trade ties, and the scale of bilateral trade continues to grow. China has been Indonesia's largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years, with bilateral trade in 2023 reaching $139.42 billion. China is also Indonesia's largest source of imports as well as exports destination. And the first three quarters of this year saw bilateral trade reaching $105.621 billion, up 2.5 percent year-on-year.

China is a major destination for the export of Indonesia's natural resources such as coal, palm oil, rubber and nickel ore, while Chinese mechanical and electrical products, electronics goods and textiles are popular in the Indonesian market. Also, Chinese investment in Indonesia has been growing, reaching $7.4 billion last year and making China the second-largest foreign investor in Indonesia, after Singapore.

While their cooperation to increase production capacity has been continuously upgraded, their cooperation in infrastructure has borne fruitful results, and the two countries have strengthened their mutually beneficial cooperation in traditional fields such as mining, agriculture and fisheries.

On the other hand, Chinese companies are engaged in the construction of large-scale infrastructure facilities, such as power stations, bridges, dams and high-speed railways, in Indonesia. The two sides have also deepened cooperation in commodity trade and technology transfer, contributing to Indonesia's development and improvement of Indonesian people's livelihoods.

Furthermore, the 142.3-kilometer-long Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, the first high-speed railway in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asia and a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, celebrated its first year of operation in October, having carried 5.79 million passengers, according to the China State Railway Group Co. The high-speed railway has also benefited the local economy and helped improve people's livelihoods, setting an example of high-quality cooperation in infrastructure construction in Southeast Asia.

The two countries continue to deepen all-round strategic cooperation and promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative through the China-Indonesia "Two Countries, Twin Parks" project and the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor.

Besides, the two sides are discussing the possibility of jointly developing Indonesia's planned new capital Nusantara and the North Kalimantan Industrial Park, and building a giant sea wall to prevent Jakarta from sinking into the sea at a faster rate. They are also exploring the possibility of establishing cooperation in areas such as electric vehicles, e-commerce, financing and marine resource development.

On their part, Chinese companies are helping Indonesia develop its nickel industry and EV sector, and have signed memorandums of understanding on the digital economy to explore new channels of development, and formed a multi-level and wide-ranging monetary and financial cooperation framework, which includes local currency swaps, trade settlement in local currency and a cross-border renminbi payment system.

Moreover, China and Indonesia are taking measures to deepen strategic mutual trust and strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs, while supporting each other on issues related to their core interests and upholding multilateralism.

In October, Indonesia officially expressed its desire to join BRICS, in order to further strengthen its economic partnership with the grouping's member states and play a bigger role in international affairs, and China welcomed Indonesia to join the grouping.

Given the complex and ever-changing global situation, it is important that China and Indonesia further strengthen their all-round strategic cooperation, not least because the two sides have a shared interest in maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, serving the interests of developing countries and improving global governance.

Amid the rising tensions across regions and the faltering global economic recovery, it is heartening to see China and Indonesia lay a solid foundation for promoting long-term cooperation in various fields and realizing common development.

The author is an associate researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Scien ces. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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