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Indonesian president-elect vows to further strengthen ties with Japan after visiting China

28 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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28 Comments
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Wonder how much Kishida pledges to Indonesia.

Meanwhile the number of Japanese people using food banks is rising exponentially.

-11 ( +5 / -16 )

Trustworthiness Ranking by ASEAN Countries (Trust vs. Distrust)

Japan: 59 vs 20 

USA: 42 vs 38,

EU: 42 vs 35,

China: 25 vs 50

Travel Destination Popularity Ranking

Japan: 30%

https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-State-of-SEA-2024.pdf

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

So they elected the former dictator’s executioner and the current president’s son. So now they’re no different than the Philippines… oh wait Marcos in the Philippines didn’t actually kill anyone, that was his father. This guy actually did murder a lot. Guess Indonesia is worse.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

You forgot North Korea.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Japan helped Indonesia win its independence from the Dutch colonial rule that lasted three hundred years. The Muslim country used to be pro-Japan but now many of its politicians are contaminated with China money and rotten to the core.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Indonesia will play Japan and Communist China off against each other - as is their right - for the best development aid. We saw that with the High Speed Rail saga. Japan is certainly wary of this.

It's a shame Indonesia did not choose Japan to build the shinkansen line there - it would've be much superior to the Chinese built "WHOOSH" flop there.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Japan helped Indonesia win its independence from the Dutch colonial rule that lasted three hundred years.

No, Japan lost the war and were defeated by the Allies. Otherwise Indonesia would have been a colony if not a part of Japan.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

Kishida welcomed Subianto's early visit to Tokyo, telling his future counterpart that the two countries are longtime friends that share basic values and principles,

So Kishida shares values with one of Suharto's henchmen, a vicious killer with a long slime trail of unsolved murders and torture victims that has made him a notoriously unsavory character in Indonesia? This "welcome" is so very morally wrong and a perversion of humanitarian values that has now become a veritable sickness in the "international community" whose abuses of power and brazen violation of international laws have been exposed to all but the gaslit and willfully blind.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner

That sums it up. Tokyo playing second fiddle to the US doesn't warrant ditching a neutral stance to advance their warped agenda. They remember the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was cruel colonialist exploitation replacing cruel colonialist exploitation, to reinforce Japanese hegemony. The "assisting independence" narrative is baloney revisionist history whitewashing.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

One more nation lining up to ensure a rules based order and peace in the Indo-Pacific. One less that is on China's side of anarchy and might makes right diplomacy.

China is going to get mighty lonely and isolated in its own region, apart from the two vassal's under its control, being Russia and NK. I am sure Xi does not care anyway, you need a moral center to care and he has none.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Peter14Today  06:51 pm JST

One more nation lining up to ensure a rules based order and peace in the Indo-Pacific. One less that is on China's side of anarchy and might makes right diplomacy.

Clear you didn't read the article. Subianto visited Beijing first and Indonesia has maintained a relatively neutral stance, as the article makes clear. Talk of defense cooperation, 'capacity building' and educational programs is just the usual word-salad-stuff cooked up by Kasumigaseki with a Chatbot to please domestic audiences, pretend this event is relevant and humour Kishida.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Wonder how much under the table money was given to the newly elected leader for the photo opt. Corruption in Indonesia is amazing.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Clear you didn't read the article. Subianto visited Beijing first and Indonesia has maintained a relatively neutral stance, as the article makes clear.

Oh I read the article, and note that he immediately visited Japan after China, to show public support for the rules based order China rails against. To stand with Japan, and so with all the other nations supporting the rules that China ignores. China has encroached on Indonesian EEZ and Indonesia has engaged with Australia previously on that topic, for support.

He no doubt advised Japan of the behind the scenes talks he had with China, and he had no hesitation of joining with Japan on defense ties.

Subianto held talks with Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara. The two ministers vowed to enhance defense cooperation

Indonesia will remain on the fringe for now, but as Chinese ambitions manifest and include Indonesian territory, they will be pushed into the growing alliance to contain China's military adventurism.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

It just means he wants Japan to give them more money in form of aid! But what can Japan do except throw money around just to look good internationally.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Indonesia is lost, it has become a Chinese territory. There will be another Chinese-ethnic massacre. The cycle between Chinese-ethnic/immigrants becoming rich in Indonesia and being massacred is a never ending one that's been going on for centuries since the Netherlands ruled there.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

quercetumToday  06:18 pm JST

Japan helped Indonesia win its independence from the Dutch colonial rule that lasted three hundred years.

No, Japan lost the war and were defeated by the Allies. Otherwise Indonesia would have been a colony if not a part of Japan.

A great many Indonesians still see the Japanese occupation of WWII as a liberation from the Dutch. The Dutch even tried to subjugsate Indionesia again and failed. Some remaining IJA soldiers stayed and fought alongside Indonesian freedom fighters.

"Up to 3,000 Japanese volunteers fought against the Dutch. Of these approximately 1,000 died, 1,000 returned to Japan after Indonesia's independence, and 1,000 remained and were naturalized in Indonesia."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalibata_Heroes_Cemetery

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Like it or not, this is good..

Have good relationships with China. Japan and the rest of Asian countries..

Without the intervention of western circUS..

Asia for the Asians..

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

The main disruption causing less-than-great-relations with China is China's tone-deaf dealings with everyone else. They commonly say one thing, then do something completely different.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Kishida/Japan: Security, security, security! China, China, China!

Prabowo Subianto:

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I wonder whether the Indonesia haters here all are similarly exercised about Vietnam when the latter has a far worse record on press freedom and no contested elections.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@kokontozai Majority of ASEAN people favor China over U.S., survey finds

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Majority-of-ASEAN-people-favor-China-over-U.S.-survey-finds

USA, Israel, Gazza. Cause and effect.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

deanzaZZRToday 12:56 am JST

@kokontozai Majority of ASEAN people favor China over U.S., survey finds

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Majority-of-ASEAN-people-favor-China-over-U.S.-survey-finds

USA, Israel, Gazza. Cause and effect.

A region with hatred for Israel, freedom, and rule of law hates the US. What a shocker.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Indonesia has a lot of potential.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

No comment on the new Indo. leader, but this country is an emerging economic power in the region whose GDP will in a decade or so outstrip Australia.

I like Indonesians personally as well...visited many times.

Has a big variety of ethnic and religious groups, modern cities and age old village communities.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Be warned already today and in early stage, they are much cleverer than it seems. They just play one unbeliever against the other unbeliever to their advantage. And if I shortly look onto a map, I would even estimate and explicitly predict that they not only want some economy goodies like money presents, interest rate free development help credits or new technologies and investments. On the longer time scale they will set sail and make a numerous 'visit' to the North and easily collect in the remainders of the shrinking unbelievers.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Majority-of-ASEAN-people-favor-China-over-U.S.-survey-finds

50.5% of respondents opted for China and 49.5% preferred the U.S.

According to that link, the difference between choosing China and choosing the US is within the margin of error. To get to ±1% error, over 16,600 randomly selected survey participants is required. They cannot self-select or refuse to participate. They must be 100% randomly selected.

±2% error needs over 4000 survey participants.

±3% error needs about 1600 survey participants.

Effectively, if that survey had less than 16,600 survey participants, then the margin of error is larger than the difference and the headline is meaningless.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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