Excellencies, 
Distinguished business leaders, 
Distinguished government leaders, 
And, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good evening. First of all, thank you very much for those kind words. I don’t think I deserve those kind words, but thank you very much.

I am deeply honored tonight to be here, invited by the US-ASEAN Chamber of Commerce, the US Chamber of Commerce and the USINDO, the United States-Indonesia Society. Of which, by the way, my father was the Indonesian co-president, I think, in the first years of USINDO. 

And, so I’m pleased to be here in Washington, D.C. I’ve been invited by the President of the United States to be in the first official meeting of the Board of Peace, which was established to try to follow through on the ceasefire agreements in Gaza and to work towards a pathway in which we can find a lasting solution to the problems, the conflict in Gaza and in the Palestine. So, this will be a very important meeting that I attend. 

And, also I’m here also to conclude a major trade agreement between our two countries. We have been negotiating very intensely for the past several months, and I think we have achieved a solid agreement on many issues. So, I look forward to seeing this trade agreement as a major boost for continuing U.S.-Indonesian economic partnership, economic cooperation. As you know, we signed several important agreements between Indonesian and U.S. partners, some between Indonesian government institutions and some between Indonesian companies and U.S. companies. And, amongst them are the implementing agreements as a follow-up to the major points agreed upon between Indonesia and the U.S. concerning trade balance between our two countries. So I’m very optimistic about the future of our relationship. 

As you know, Indonesia will always remember the role that the United States has played in our history. The U.S. was instrumental in supporting our struggle for independence in the 1940s, ‘45 to ‘49 we were fighting the war of independence, trying to free ourselves from Dutch colonialism, and the U.S. was instrumental in supporting us. And, throughout our early history, we always saw the United States helping us in our critical times. And, I think this shows actually how at least the current leaders of Indonesia, we always try to teach the younger generation to never forget our friends who were friends in our times of need. So, there are also friends who will be friends when everything is going well. I think in your idiom it’s called fair-weather friends. But, it shows how old I am, actually. I remember those tough times, and so we do remember. 

And, I think today, my visit here, my support of the U.S.-Indonesia partnership, I think is evidence of our commitment that we want to see a strong American presence in Indonesia. We’ve always wanted that. We always tried to convince America, the United States of America, that Indonesia is a true friend, even though maybe politically we have a tradition of non-alignment. That’s our tradition in our foreign policy. We take the position of great respect for all the great powers and we value this friendship to all nations. And, in the end, we feel that we can be some sort of bridge, some sort of honest broker between great powers.

We hope that in this planet of ours, that we feel this planet is getting smaller and smaller, because of technology, because of science. I think there is a great need for collaboration, for cooperation. And, I myself see that there is a great will on the part of the leaders of the United States now to try to create a climate of peace. This might not be satisfactory to many people, but at least we have to try to make the best of what we can. Therefore, in coordination and in close consultation with the other leading Islamic countries that have been invited by the President of the United States to join in the endeavors to try to achieve lasting peace in Palestine, we remain committed to support this. We see this as an opportunity. Whatever the challenges that we face, there are challenges. There are tremendous difficulties. We recognize there are still obstacles to be overcome. But at least, my position is, at least we have to try and we have to do our best. So, once again, we would like the best of relationship with the United States in all spheres, politically, economically, in the field of humanitarian assistance, in the field of protecting the environment. We have a strong potential to enhance this relationship.

Indonesia has a lot of potential. So, we are sort of, we now realize, I think the region realizes that Indonesia is no longer the sleeping giant. We are starting to wake up a bit. And I think the region, even the world, now recognizes that we have solid economic foundations. We have managed our economy prudently over the years. We have never defaulted, not once in our history. We have never defaulted on our debts. Even a succeeding administration, succeeding governments will always respect the debts of previous governments, even though maybe they were very strong opponents of each other, but the tradition in our society is to respect our obligations and this is the tradition that we have followed up to now. 

Indonesia has been more and more, more or less, in our history a bit below the radar. We tend to be more inward-looking because we have tremendous problems to overcome. A lot of our people are living in poverty. A lot of our people still face hunger. A lot of our children face malnutrition. And, this I am determined to address, I am of the opinion that problems are to be solved head on. We must have the courage to acknowledge our weaknesses, acknowledge our problems, and do our best to look for the best solutions.

I have been in discussion with senior members of many American corporations a few hours ago. And there I emphasized that my government is aware of our strengths and our weaknesses. We acknowledge our weaknesses. We are determined to create a more efficient government. We are determined to have good governance. We are trying to create a new, let us say, a new generation of leaders, well-educated, well-trained, but also well-grounded in good administration, good governance, rational, logical, pragmatic management, pragmatic problem-solving regimes. So, this new attitude that we are trying to foster in our young generation, we are speeding up in all fields. Of course, economically, we have to protect our resources, manage our resources well, and prepare the human element. 

Education, for me, is very important. I am establishing 10 new universities. We are starting to build this year. Five hundred new high-quality schools working together, inviting foreign institutions of education to come to Indonesia. We are opening up the education sector. I have just come back from the United Kingdom and am talking to great universities there: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, King’s College, University College London, etc. And they are also very interested in coming to Indonesia. 

I am also inviting American institutions to work with us in Indonesia. Education, fields of health. We have a shortage of 140,000 medical doctors and we only graduate around 10,000 doctors a year, that means it will take us 14 years to fill this gap, unless a new effort is made. And, that’s why I am creating these 10 new universities, which will be based on STEMM: science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. So here, I think, is also an opportunity for the U.S. 

We have General Electric also building medical equipment in Indonesia and we hope that they will increase their production. We will support it. There were some bureaucratic snags which we resolved very fast.  And, I did receive inputs a few hours ago from some corporations complaining of very slow solutions to their problems. So, thank you very much for this opportunity for me to get direct input that, this is what I like, to solve problems very fast. And, I think in the current age, speed is very important. Speed will help accelerate the rate of growth and the rate of progress. 

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think those are the points that I would like to make. My government is committed to fight against corruption, against malfeasance. We know we have a lot of problems. We have problems of smuggling, human trafficking. We have problems of illegal economic activities, illegal mining, illegal fishery, illegal logging. I just closed 1,000 illegal mines, 1,000 illegal mines, they were mining in protected forests. I also confiscated something like 4 million hectares of corporations that violated laws and regulations that were operating outside their permitted areas, outside their concessions, etc. 

We are dealing with our problems head on. We are enforcing the law. We are attempting to create an atmosphere of the certainty of the legal process. I think this will all add to a climate of social stability, political stability, and will create an environment that is conducive for business and economic activities. 

Mr. Akerson mentioned that I was in the military. After the military, I went to business. So, I was also doing business in countries outside Indonesia. So, I know I have the experience of being also a foreign investor. We were in Kazakhstan, the former Soviet Union. We were in Azerbaijan. So we know the concerns of foreign corporations and foreign businesses. And, I think I’m proud to say that I have friends here, long-time friends, right? Like Mr. Akerson, we were friends for how many decades? So I think he can testify of how we are committed, how we protect our foreign guests, how we uphold the sanctity of contracts, the sanctity of agreements. And, I think this will testify to the tradition of Indonesians who welcome foreigners as guests. I think that’s our tradition. All guests we consider must be protected. We can quarrel among ourselves, but for us foreign guests, our guests in our tradition must be protected and must be valued. 

Ladies and gentlemen,
I think I will cut my remarks here, because otherwise I tend to speak longer and longer than necessary. I think that’s the downside of politicians and political leaders. But, I think it’s your fault for giving me a podium. Because an American political leader actually taught me, “Prabowo, never stop campaigning. So, even though you are just elected.” And, he told this a few weeks after I was elected, “Never stop campaigning.” So this, I always have this. Who knows, I’ll get three or four more supporters from this meeting.

But anyway, you must know that we value the U.S.-Indonesia relationship. We value American involvement, American participation. And, for many years actually, you know, whether you like it or not, I mean, people in South East Asia always consider the United States as a strong friend and, let us say, leader of the free world.

Thank you very much.