Prabowo Warmly Embraces President Erdogan

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - Under the drizzle, President Prabowo Subianto warmly welcomed the arrival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and First Lady Emine, on Tuesday evening (11/2/2025) at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base, Jakarta.

A Turkish-flagged aircraft with the inscription Republic of Turkiye and tail number TC-TRK landed precisely at 18:29 WIB at the Base Ops Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base. President Prabowo had been prepared at Halim Air Force Base since 17:56 WIB.

When the plane carrying Erdogan landed, a drizzle began to fall. The cordon troops from the Presidential Security Forces (Paspampres) lined up along the edge of the red carpet laid out at the foot of the plane's stairs. The Paspampres Music Detachment played the Victory Drum March as President Erdogan and his wife set foot on Indonesian soil. After that, the gambang kromong ensemble continued the welcome.

President Prabowo greeted and then embraced President Erdogan warmly. He also greeted First Lady Emine.

The welcoming of Erdogan marked the first moment President Prabowo directly greeted a state guest at Halim Air Base. Generally, the welcoming of arriving state guests is represented by a minister.

In this reception, President Prabowo was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sugiono, and Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya. After introducing his aides to President Erdogan and his wife, President Prabowo invited them to the ready Mercedes Benz car.

Due to the continuous drizzle, President Erdogan, who was accompanied by his wife, briefly offered an umbrella to Prabowo, but Prabowo politely declined. Prabowo and Erdogan then boarded the same vehicle.

The welcoming of Erdogan marked the first moment President Prabowo directly greeted a state guest at Halim Air Base. Generally, the welcoming of arriving state guests is represented by a minister.

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).

Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, on Monday night (10/2/2025), added that a special reception was prepared for President Erdogan and First Lady Emine. Rehearsals for the welcoming ceremony at the Bogor Palace had been conducted one or two days prior. President Prabowo also directly monitored the rehearsal of this ceremony throughout Tuesday.

The plan is that school children and residents will welcome President Erdogan around the Kujang Monument. In addition, TNI troops from three branches will also welcome him before the President enters the gate of the Bogor Presidential Palace. Upon arrival at the Bogor Palace, dozens of cavalry troops will greet him.

In preparation, giant billboards depicting photos of President Erdogan and First Lady Emine have been installed on main roads in Bogor City since Sunday (9/2/2025).

"After the welcoming procession, the agenda continued with a bilateral meeting to discuss various aspects of cooperation between the two countries that are mutually beneficial," Yusuf said 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. After that, President Erdogan visited Indonesia. Türkiye and Indonesia celebrated 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.

Meanwhile, senior lecturer of the Department of International Relations, FISIP, Padjajaran University, Teukur Rezasyah, said that Indonesia and Turkey are old friends. In fact, before Indonesia was formed, the archipelago had a strategic cooperative relationship with Turkey long before the arrival of European colonialists in the country.

Now, both Indonesia and Turkey are developing as middle powers so that they are accustomed to forming coalitions with other middle powers. Not only that, the two countries have also long worked together in the multilateral organization of the Parliament of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Australia or MIKTA.

In MIKTA, Rezasyah said, Indonesia and Turkey also have similarities as countries that are more independent of the United States. This is important considering that the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump has begun to implement many international sanctions.

In that context, according to Rezasyah, Indonesia and Turkey have the potential to discuss the possibility of uniting the performance of BRICS with MIKTA. Because, both countries have also become members of BRICS, an economic bloc that originally consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, to reduce the dominance of Western countries in international trade.

Reza did not deny that in recent times the relationship between Indonesia and Turkey has been colored by news about Erdogan's attitude in leaving the D-8 Summit location when Prabowo gave a speech about Palestine. According to him, the two Presidents both understand their different conceptions of resolving the Palestinian issue.

However, Indonesia and Turkey are predicted to align their steps on the Palestinian issue amid the dynamics of the United States' attitude after being led by Trump. "Therefore, both will state and close their positions. Both countries (will) think about the reconstruction of Palestine if Donald Trump's ideas are rejected by the world," said Rezasyah.