Over the weekend, Prabowo met with key Chinese leaders, including Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Qiang and finally President Xi Jinping. The visit resulted in several notable agreements, such as a USD 10 billion investment commitment between the countries and several memorandums of understanding related to water conservation, the blue economy, and marine and mining resources.

The joint statement issued by the leaders, titled “Promoting a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Building a China-Indonesia Community with a Shared Future,” reflects Prabowo’s strategic framing of China as a key partner.

From the various statements expressed by Prabowo, we can glimpse how he emphasized a multipolar world order, guided by principles such as strategic autonomy, mutual trust, fairness and win-win cooperation.

Such a worldview indeed reflects the argument of the erosion of moral leadership by the very pole that has led the current global order, the United States, from unilateral protectionist policies, a lack of appetite for all things multilateral, to the moral dilemma in the Middle East conflict .

However, one aspect of this trip has raised concerns both domestically and internationally. For the first time, Indonesia acknowledged the existence of “overlapping claims” with China in the joint statement.

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An article in the joint statement, namely Part 9 on maritime cooperation, says: “The two sides reached an important common understanding on joint development in areas of overlapping claims and agreed to establish a Joint Coordination Committee intergovernmental to explore and promote relevant cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, flexibility, pragmatism and consensus building, in accordance with the respective laws and regulations in vigor.”