Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto attend a welcoming ceremony during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 9, 2024. (Florence Lo/Pool Photo via AP)

BEIJING — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto pledged to maintain close ties with China during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Saturday in Beijing, his first overseas stop since taking office three weeks ago.

Subianto is trying to strengthen relations with China, Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and one of its biggest foreign investors. This is his second visit to Beijing this year, following a visit in April as president-elect, his first overseas trip since winning Indonesia’s presidential election in February.

“Indonesia regards China not only as a great power but also as a great civilization,” Subianto said at the meeting, adding that the two countries have had close relations for centuries. “So I think it’s only natural that now, in the current geopolitical and geoeconomic situation, that Indonesia and China become very close partners and in many, many fields.”

Xi pledged support for Subianto’s administration, thanking him for choosing to visit China first and saying he believed that “Indonesia will adhere to an independent development path, continue to make new achievements in the journey to achieve national prosperity and national rejuvenation and will play an important role. on the international and regional stage.”

Earlier on Saturday, Subianto met with other top Chinese leaders, including Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, who is chairman of the National People’s Congress and considered the No. 3 official in the ruling Communist Party.

Subianto is on the first stop on a multi-country tour. He is scheduled to visit four other nations, including the US and Britain, suggesting Indonesia will continue its long-standing position of neutrality between Beijing and Washington. He is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden and is also expected to meet with President-elect Donald Trump early next week.

Subianto, 73, is a wealthy former general with ties to both Indonesia’s popular sitting president and the country’s dictatorial past. He presented himself as the heir to the immensely popular President Joko Widodo, the first Indonesian president to emerge from outside the political and military elite. Subianto promised to continue the modernization agenda that brought rapid growth and brought Indonesia into the ranks of middle-income countries.

Indonesia’s economic ties with China have flourished during Widodo’s decade in office. China has become Indonesia’s largest trading partner and has invested billions in major infrastructure projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, which opened last October, and Cirata, its largest energy project Southeast Asia’s floating solar farm on a reservoir in West Java, 80 miles from the capital, Jakarta.

The two leaders presided over the signing of various agreements on fisheries, mining, housing and import and export. Subianto said during the meeting with Xi that he would later preside over the signing of more than $10 billion worth of agreements during a meeting between Chinese companies and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Subianto signals a more active foreign policy for Indonesia, visiting more than 20 countries as president-elect. Days after its inauguration, Indonesia expressed interest in becoming a full member of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Indonesia has maintained a relatively neutral stance amid rising tensions between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and congested waterway.

The Philippines has stepped up security ties with Washington since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, retreating from the more China-friendly policy of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. China and the Philippines have engaged in repeated confrontations at sea since last year, raising fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the US on a collision course.

Although Indonesia’s leaders say they have no formal territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea, China’s “nine-dash line,” which it uses to roughly delimit its claim to most of the China Sea South, it overlaps with a section of Indonesia. exclusive economic zone stretching from the Natuna Islands.

Last month, Indonesian patrol vessels repeatedly chased a Chinese coast guard vessel off a research vessel in the disputed area, according to Indonesian authorities. Jakarta has become increasingly protective of its rights in the region as Chinese ships have regularly entered what Indonesia calls the North Natuna Sea, straining relations between the countries.

Although neither leader directly addressed the tensions to reporters, the two countries signed agreements on maritime security and on joint development of fisheries and oil and gas in the area of ​​overlapping maritime claims during Subianto’s visit. No details were provided.

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta, Indonesia.