Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto to ensure ‘continuity’ in policies if he becomes president, brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo says
- ‘Continuity’ means Indonesia will remain neutral amid ‘great-power competition’, says Hashim Djojohadikusumo at the Post’s Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023
- Chinese investment is also important to Indonesia’s economy, Hashim adds, as he assures investors his brother will continue to welcome business from China
“In terms of geopolitics, [continuity] means that Indonesia will hew [to] and continue a line of neutrality,” he said in his keynote speech at the Post’s Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023 on Monday.
Hashim said this was going to be increasingly important moving forward, with the world facing increased “great-power competition” as well as “the problems of Taiwan”, and where it stood in relation to mainland China.
“Once [Prabowo] becomes president in 2024, we’ll continue resolutely to that line of neutrality and non-alignment,” Hashim said. “We will be friends with the People’s Republic of China. We will continue to be friends with Australia, the United States, India, Japan and other countries.”
Hashim, an entrepreneur and co-founder of the Gerindra Party now led by defence minister Prabowo, also emphasised the importance of Chinese business and investments to the Indonesian economy, saying that he would like to assure investors in the wider region that his brother would continue to welcome business from mainland China.
“Businesses from the mainland have been instrumental in developing our nickel industry. Indonesia is the number one, the premier producer of refined nickel in the world and [that is] largely because of Chinese investment,” he said.
