Erdogan to Indonesia, Prabowo Welcomes Directly

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Indonesia on Tuesday and Wednesday (February 11-12, 2025). President Prabowo Subianto will welcome Erdogan's visit with a state ceremony at the Presidential Palace, Bogor, on Wednesday (February 12, 2025).

Not only that, President Prabowo Subianto is scheduled to personally welcome his friend at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in Jakarta on Tuesday at around 5:00 PM WIB. President Erdogan's visit will be accompanied by Mrs. Emine Erdogan.

Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Monday (10/2/2025) evening, confirmed that a special welcome was prepared for President Erdogan and First Lady Emine.

Rehearsals for the welcoming ceremony at the Bogor Palace have been held since one or two days prior. Meanwhile, a giant billboard featuring a photo of President Erdogan has been installed on the main road in the city of Bogor since Sunday (9/2/2025).

Deputy for Protocol, Press, and Media of the Presidential Secretariat Yusuf Permana explained that the state ceremony to welcome President Erdogan will be held at the Bogor Presidential Palace on Wednesday (12/2/2025).

"After the welcoming ceremony, the agenda continued with a bilateral meeting to discuss various aspects of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries," he stated in writing.

The series of state visits will be closed with a state lunch held in the courtyard of the Bogor Presidential Palace.

Previously, on February 10, 2025, Erdogan wrote on his official account @RTErdogan on the social media platform X that he would visit Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan for four days. During this visit of friendship and brotherhood, many agreements will be signed to strengthen bilateral relations.

The first country visited was Malaysia as the Chair of ASEAN this year. Afterwards, President Erdogan visited Indonesia. Turkey and Indonesia are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"I believe that a visit to Indonesia, the host country of the ASEAN Secretariat General and Malaysia which currently holds the ASEAN chairmanship, will bring positive benefits, especially as we want to strengthen relations with ASEAN," he wrote.

In addition to official meetings, Erdogan will also attend a business forum.

Separately, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Rolliansyah Soemirat explained that in addition to the bilateral visit, there will be a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting for the first time with President Prabowo Subianto.

"This is the highest regular bilateral forum between the two countries, led directly by the head of state, so that all matters of common concern between the two countries will be directly highlighted," he said in a press statement, Friday (7/2/2025).

Turkey has a similar cooperation forum with 21 countries including Indonesia. Turkey first declared this forum at the G20 Summit in Bali in 2022.

Diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Turkey officially began in 1957. However, relations between the two countries have actually existed since the 12th century when Turkish students came to Indonesia to spread Islam.

Now, both countries are countries with Muslim majority populations. Therefore, Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar is preparing to strengthen Indonesia-Türkiye cooperation, especially in the fields of Islam and education.

An agreement will be made to facilitate sending more Indonesian students to study in Turkey. This was discussed with the Indonesian Ambassador to Turkey Achmad Rizal Purnama at the Ministry of Religious Affairs office, Jakarta, Thursday (6/2/2025).

Turkey and Indonesia are both strategically located in the world. Turkey is the link between the Asian and European continents, while Indonesia is at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The friendship between the leaders of the two countries has also been well established since the time of the first President of the Republic of Indonesia, Soekarno. Soekarno who visited Turkey on April 24-29, 1959 met with Turkish President Celal Bayar and the then Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.

At that time, Soekarno also visited the tomb of the great leader of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This great figure became an inspiration for Soekarno in the national and youth movements of Indonesia. Soekarno also expressed his admiration for Ataturk when giving a speech during the visit.

The Indonesia-Türkiye friendship continued until the leadership of the seventh President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo and President Prabowo Subianto.