Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will be in Türkiye this week upon the invitation of his counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday at Parliament and become the third sitting Indonesian leader to deliver such a speech after the country’s first president, Sukarno and sixth president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The two countries enjoy close ties, and Erdoğan and the Indonesian leader exchanged greetings for Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid al-Fitr, in a phone call last week.
Erdoğan received an unusually warm welcome in Indonesia when he arrived last February as the second stopover of his Asia tour after Malaysia. During that visit, Ankara and Jakarta signed 13 joint agreements in various areas, including trade, defense, industry, agriculture and media. In 2019, Türkiye launched its Asia Anew initiative to bolster ties with Asian countries. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, it aims to capitalize on potential opportunities for co-operation with Asian countries. The initiative covers a policy based on common interests and objectives through regional, sub-regional and country-specific approaches.
Türkiye and Indonesia commemorate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year. Relations further strengthened under Erdoğan’s lengthy tenure, first as prime minister and later as president. Before that, the countries trace back their ties to the 16th century, when the Aceh Sultanate sought assistance from the Ottoman Empire against the Portuguese, and Ottoman troops were deployed subsequently. These military ties took the form of modern-day defense co-operation, including joint production of tanks between Turkish and Indonesian companies. The two countries also cooperate and coordinate on international platforms, including the D-8, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and MIKTA.
