No Financial Commitment: Board of Peace
President Prabowo Subianto , under fire at home for signing up to United States counterpart Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace”, has insisted his country would not pay the US$1 billion joining fee for permanent membership. Jakarta had only committed peacekeeping troops for the initiative, Prabowo said in a statement published on the presidential YouTube channel Sunday. The “Board of Peace” came together after the Trump administration, teaming up with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza. Countries that want to be permanent members must pay $1 billion – sparking criticism the board could become a “pay-to-play” version of the United Nations Security Council.
Prabowo attended the inaugural meeting of the “Board of Peace” in Washington last month. But he later said he would withdraw from the board if it does not bring benefits to Palestinians or align with Indonesia’s national interests. “We never said that we wanted to contribute $1 billion,” Prabowo said in statements broadcast on his YouTube channel Sunday. He said he did not make any financial commitments “at all”. (Jakarta Post)
Prabowo Speaks on ART
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said on March 22 the government will safeguard national interests in all policymaking, including the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) with the United States. “If I think our national interests are threatened by any agreement, then we can leave it,” he added. Prabowo said the agreement had undergone thorough evaluation before approval, with one key provision reducing trade tariffs from 32 percent to 19 percent. He also noted that Indonesia received what he described as special treatment from US President Donald Trump under the deal. The government retains room to renegotiate should the agreement prove detrimental to domestic interests. “We agreed that if there are provisions not in line with the agreement or contrary to the interests of both parties, adjustment clauses will apply,” Prabowo said. He added that the clause offers Indonesia flexibility to safeguard its economic sovereignty, describing it as a distinctive feature compared with other US trade arrangements.In response to a question at a forum concerning Indonesia’s obligation to open access to critical mineral mining for U.S. companies, Prabowo stated that the clause does not imply Indonesia would allow U.S. companies to extract critical minerals at scale for raw export. He emphasized that existing government regulations strictly limit raw commodity exports.“We require raw materials to be processed. If they wish to mine, processing must still take place domestically—that is the essence of downstreaming,” Prabowo said.