Sambutan Presiden Prabowo pada Gala Iftar Dinner Business Summit, Washington DC, 18 Feb 2026

Republic of Indonesia is coming in the room. Maybe we can all stand. Thank you. >> [applause] >> On behalf of the US business community, President Prabowo Subianto, thank you very much for coming. We are going to go directly into an MOU signing ceremony. Let me hand it over to my colleague, Mega Valentino. Where is she? Thank you, Brian. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we're honored to have the presence of the President of Indonesia, His Excellency Prabowo Subianto, to witness the signing of 10 agreements between the US and Indonesian companies. So, first we'd like to invite the first five sets of signatories. The first one, the agreement between the Minister of Okay. Before we proceed, uh we would like to invite you to take your seats, please. The first one, please welcome Freeport-McMoRan, PT Freeport Indonesia, and the government of Indonesia. Second set will be Cargill, PT Sorini Argo or Cargill Indonesia represented by AmCham Indonesia, National Cotton Council with Dehan Global, Pan Brothers and Raval. Freeport-McMoRan will sign the agreement with Investment and Downstreaming Minister, His Excellency Rosan Roeslani. Two signatories, please approach the tables. Thank you. >> [applause] >> May we invite the second set of signatories, Asmindo Indonesia with Bing Amant and Sun Lumber, Pertamina and Halliburton, PSN Wirajaya and T-Energy, PSN Wirajaya and Solana Group LLC. Two signatories, please approach the stage and the table for the agreements. The signatories are signing the MOUs. Thank you very much for the President of Indonesia and his ministers for witnessing these ceremonies. Thank you. We will proceed to the next sessions. >> 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 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, uh my father was the Indonesian co-president, I think, in the first years of USINDO. And uh so um I'm pleased to be here in Washington, D.C. I've been invited by the President of the United States uh to be in the first, I think, official meeting of the Board of Peace, which uh was established to try to follow through on the uh ceasefire uh agreements in uh Gaza and to work towards uh a pathway in which we can find a lasting solution to the problems the conflict uh in Gaza and in the Palestine. So, uh this will be a very important uh meeting that I attend. And uh also I I'm here also to conclude a major trade agreement between our two countries. Uh We have been uh negotiating very intensely for the past several months. And I think we are we have achieved uh a solid agreement on many on many issues. So, uh I look forward to see this uh trade agreement as a major boost for uh continuing US-Indonesian economic partnership, economic cooperation. Uh As you know, we signed several important agreements between Indonesian and US partners. Some between Indonesian government institutions and some between Indonesian companies and US companies. And uh uh amongst them are the implementing agreements as a follow-up to the a major points agreed upon between Indonesia and the US concerning uh trade balance between our two countries. So, I'm very optimistic about the future of our relationship. As you know, uh Indonesia will always remember the role that United States has played in our history. The US uh was instrumental in supporting our struggle for independence. In the 1940s, 45 to 49 were fighting a war of independence. Uh trying to free ourselves from Dutch colonialism and the US was instrumental in supporting us. And uh throughout our early history we always saw the United States uh helping us in our critical times. Uh and I think this shows actually how uh 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 I in your idiom is called fair weather friends. But but uh It shows how old I am actually, right? That I remember those tough times, right? And uh So, we do remember. And I think today uh my visit here my uh support of US Indonesia partnership I think uh is evidence of our commitment that we want to see a strong American presence in Indonesia. We've always wanted that. We always uh uh tried to convince uh America, the United States of America, that uh Indonesia is a true friend. Even though maybe politically we have a tradition of non-alignment. That's our tradition uh in our foreign policy. We take the position of uh great respect for all the great powers. And uh we value uh this uh friendship to all nations. And in the end uh we feel that we can be some sort of a bridge, some sort of a uh honest broker between uh uh great powers. We hope that uh in this planet of ours that uh we feel this planet is getting smaller and smaller uh because of technology because of science. Uh I think uh there is a great need for collaboration, for cooperation. And uh I myself see that there's a great will on the part of the leaders of the United States now to try to uh create a climate of peace. This might This might not be satisfactory to many people but at least we have to try to make the best of what we can. Therefore, I uh in coordination and in uh close consultation with uh the other leading Islamic countries that have been invited by the President of the United States to join in the uh endeavors to try to achieve a lasting peace in uh Palestine. Uh we remain committed to support this. Uh we see this as an opportunity. Whatever the challenges that we face, there are challenges. There are tremendous difficulties. We recognize there are still uh obstacles to be overcome. But at least uh my position is at least we have to try. And we have to do our best. So, uh once again, we would like the best of relationship with the United States in all spheres, politically, economically, in the field of uh humanitarian uh assistance, in the field of uh protecting the environment, we have a strong potential to enhance this relationship. Indonesia has a lot of uh potential. We are sort of we now realize, I think the region realizes that the Indonesia is no longer the sleeping giant. We are starting to wake up a bit. And uh I think uh the region, even the world, now recognize that we have uh a 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. Uh so, even the succeeding administration, succeeding governments will always respect the debts of previous governments, even though maybe they were uh 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's been more and more more or less uh in our history a bit below the radar. We tend to be more inward look-looking because we have uh 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. am of the opinion that problems are to be solved uh head-on. We must have the courage to acknowledge our weaknesses, acknowledge our problems, and uh do our best to look for the best solutions. Uh I've been in discussion with a senior members of many American corporations a few hours ago. And there I emphasized that uh my government is uh aware uh of our um strengths and our weaknesses. We acknowledge our weaknesses. We are determined to create a more efficient uh government. We are determined to uh have good governance. We are trying to create a new uh a new let us say a new generation of leaders uh well-educated, well-trained but also uh well-grounded in uh good administration, good governance, rational, logical pragmatic uh management pragmatic problem-solving uh regimes. So, this new uh attitude that we are trying to uh foster in our young generation, we are speeding up in all fields. Uh Of course, uh economically, we have to protect our resources manage our resources well and prepare the human element. And education for me is very important. I am uh establishing 10 new universities we are starting to build this year. 500 new high-quality schools working together, inviting foreign institutions of education to come to Indonesia we're opening up the education sector. I have just come back from the United Kingdom and talking to uh great universities there. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, King's College. University College London, etc. etc. And they are also very interested in coming to Indonesia. I'm also inviting American institutions uh to work with us in Indonesia education uh fields of uh health. We have a shortage of uh 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 uh new real uh new effort uh is made. And that's why I'm creating these 10 new universities which will be uh based on um STEM. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. So, here I think it's also opportunity for the US. We have uh I think General Electric also building uh uh medical equipment in Indonesia. And we hope that they will increase uh their uh production. We will support it. There were some bureaucratic snags which we resolved very fast. And uh I did receive inputs uh few hours ago from uh many from some corporations uh complaining of uh um, uh, very, slow, uh, solutions to their, uh, problems. So, uh, thank you very much for this opportunity for me to get direct input. That, uh, this is what I like to, uh, solve problems very fast. And I think, uh, in the current age speed is very important. Speed will help accelerate uh, the rate of growth and the rate of progress. So, uh, ladies and gentlemen, I think, um, those are the points that I would like to make. Uh, my government is committed to fight against, corruption, against, uh, malfeasance. We know we have a lot of problems. We have problems of, uh, smuggling, uh, human trafficking. We have problems of, um, illegal economic activities, illegal mining, illegal fishery, illegal logging. I just, uh, closed 1,000 illegal mines. 1,000 illegal mines. They were mining in, uh, protected forests. Uh, I also, uh, uh, confiscated something like 4 million hectares of, uh, uh, corporations that violated, that violated laws and regulations, that were operating outside their um permitted areas, outside their concessions, etc. etc. We are dealing uh our problems head on. Uh we are enforcing the law. We are uh attempting to create an atmosphere of um the certainty of the legal process. Uh I think this will all add to a climate of social stability, uh political stability, and will create an environment uh that is conducive for business and economic activities. Uh Mr. Ekerson mentioned that I was in the military. After the military, uh I went to business. So uh I was also doing business in uh countries outside Indonesia. So I know uh I have the experience of being also a foreign investor. We were in uh in Kazakhstan, former Soviet Union. We were in Azerbaijan. So we know uh the concerns of uh foreign corporation and foreign business. And I'm I think I'm proud to say that I have friends here, longtime friends, right? Uh like Mr. Ekerson. We were friends for how many decades? So I think he can testify of how we uh are committed, how we protect our foreign guests, uh uphold the sanctity of contracts, the sanctity of agreements and uh I think this will testify to the tradition of of Indonesians who welcome foreigners as guests. Uh 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 are in our tradition must be protected and must be valued. Ladies and gentlemen, uh I think I will cut my uh remarks here, yeah, because otherwise uh I tend to speak longer and longer than necessary. I think that's uh that's the downside of politicians and political leaders, right? But I think it's the it's your fault for giving a podium, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Because as an American uh an American political leader actually taught me, said 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 is I always have this Who knows I'll I'll get three or four more supporters from this meeting. But anyway, uh you you must know that we value uh Indonesia relationship. We value American involvement, American participation. And uh for many years actually you know, uh whether you like it or not I mean, people in Southeast Asia uh always considers United States as a strong friend and uh let us say a leader of the free world. Thank you very much. Thank you.