Why Prabowo should wrap up his East Asia tour with Seoul visit

May 7, 2024

JAKARTA – With five months to go before his inauguration as the successor to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, president-elect Prabowo Subianto has ample time to complete his East Asia introductory tour by paying a courtesy call to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul.

Prabowo visited China and Japan early last month, as well as Malaysia.

He obviously won strong assurances from both China and Japan that they would continue to maintain close economic and diplomatic ties with his incoming government. But equally important is South Korea’s support.

Of course, Prabowo fully realizes that all international relations should be based on the principle of mutual benefit, and that all binding bilateral and multilateral agreements should be upheld.

He also knows very well that China, Japan and South Korea became ASEAN’s dialogue partners in 1997, when the regional bloc launched the ASEAN Plus Three economic cooperation during the second informal summit in Kuala Lumpur.

East Asia has since become ASEAN’s most important partner in terms of economic, political and security cooperation, and ministerial and leaders’ meetings have been held under the ASEAN Plus Three banner.

The bloc also hosts regular meetings with the region’s larger partners in the East Asia Summit (EAS), which involves all ASEAN 10 member states and Australia, India, New Zealand, Russia and the United States, as well as China, Japan and South Korea.

The regional forums are no stranger to Prabowo in his capacity as defense minister, a position he has held since the beginning of Jokowi’s second term in 2019, and his recent East Asia tour suggests he is keen to maintain ASEAN as a priority in Indonesian diplomacy.

During his visit to Beijing, Prabowo