BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Indonesian counterpart that Beijing hopes for a \u201cnew chapter\u201d in bilateral relations, as the two leaders met on Saturday.
\nXi held talks with newly sworn-in President Prabowo Subianto in Beijing, the first stop of the Indonesian leader\u2019s inaugural foreign tour since he took office in October.
\nChina is keen to work with Indonesia to \u201cwrite a new chapter of joint self-reliance, solidarity and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results as major developing countries,\u201d Xi told Prabowo in front of journalists.
\nBeijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies plowing money into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years, particularly the nickel sector.
\nBut the two countries have sparred verbally over disputed claims in the South China Sea.
\nPrabowo said that the relationship between the two countries was \u201cgetting stronger and stronger.\u201d
\n\u201cI would like to reiterate our commitment… to work together for the mutual benefit of our two peoples and for the prosperity, peace and stability of all of Asia,\u201d he added.
\nXi held a welcome ceremony for Prabowo at Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People on Saturday before the talks.
\nPrabowo, who landed in China on Friday, is also meeting Premier Li Qiang and number three official Zhao Leji on his trip, which ends on Sunday.
\nHe will travel onwards to Washington, at the invitation of US President Joe Biden, as part of a world tour which will also include Peru, Brazil and Britain.
\nPrabowo has pledged to stick to Jakarta\u2019s traditionally non-aligned foreign policy while making the world\u2019s fourth-most populous nation more active abroad.
\nConfrontations over what Indonesia says are Chinese incursions into its territorial waters have weighed on the trading partners\u2019 relationship in recent years.
\nIn 2020, Indonesia deployed fighter jets and warships to patrol around the Natuna islands in the South China Sea after Chinese vessels entered the area.
\nLast month, Indonesia said it drove Chinese coast guard ships from contested waters in the South China Sea on three separate occasions.
\nIndonesia says it is trying to stop foreign vessels from fishing in its waters, costing the economy billions of dollars annually.
\nHuge unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under the South China Sea, though estimates vary greatly.
\nBeijing has for years sought to expand its presence in the contested waters, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
\nIt has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.
\nThe latest confrontations are an early test for Prabowo, who has pledged to bolster the defense of Indonesian territory.
\nPrabowo has promised to be bolder on foreign policy than his predecessor Joko Widodo, who focused more on domestic issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Indonesian counterpart that Beijing hopes for a \u201cnew chapter\u201d in bilateral relations, as the two leaders met on Saturday. Xi held talks with newly sworn-in President Prabowo Subianto in Beijing, the first stop of the Indonesian leader\u2019s inaugural foreign tour since he took office in October. China is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-442570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n