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January 27, 2025 | 09:26 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said ASEAN member countries must synergize with each other to be taken into account by other great powers. According to Prabowo, only with good cooperation will the voices of Southeast Asian countries be heard and taken into account by world powers.
"If united, ASEAN, if I'm not mistaken, has more than 600 million people, no less than the European Union," Prabowo said when delivering a joint statement with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at KLCC Towers Kuala Lumpur, quoted from Bernama TV, January 27, 2025.
Prabowo is also proud of Southeast Asia because the whole world recognizes this region as a peaceful region for decades. "We have no conflict between ASEAN countries," said Prabowo.
Therefore, said Prabowo, he and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim discussed a lot of cooperation. He said Indonesia and Malaysia must work closely together in all fields. Moreover, Indonesia and Malaysia have the same interests, the same cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including the same historical relationship where both countries are the founders of ASEAN.
"So I feel that this should make the relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia more unique. There must be a special relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia. We are countries of the same ethnicity, we are countries of one culture,” he said.
Prabowo emphasized that Indonesia supports Malaysia as Chair of ASEAN 2025. He is also ready to receive the visit of the Malaysian Prime Minister for the annual consultation in Indonesia this year.
On the same occasion, Anwar Ibrahim said that Malaysia is committed to increasing cooperation in various fields, including energy, industry, employment, and defense. In fact, Anwar said that Malaysia needs to buy military equipment from Indonesia because Indonesia has quite a long experience in the defense sector.
“That will only apply if there is, not only friendship, closeness, belief and trust among the leaders and the leadership troops,” said Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysia on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 officially assumed the position of chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This is the fifth time since the bloc was founded in 1967. Previously, Malaysia chaired ASEAN in 1977, 1997, 2005 and 2015.
ASEAN consists of 10 member states, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In November 2022, Timor Leste was accepted in principle as the 11th member of ASEAN at a summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and aims to become a full member by 2025.
ASEAN, which is home to more than 700 million people, spans 4.5 million square kilometers and recorded a gross domestic product of US$3.8 trillion in 2023. This GDP makes ASEAN the fifth-largest economic bloc in the world.
Sita Planasari contributed to the writing of this article.
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