Defense Minister Prabowo: Southeast Asia Is The Safest And Most Peaceful In The World

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto gave a statement while reviewing the media center of the ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center, Thursday (7/9/2023). (ANTARA/Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga)

JAKARTA - Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said Southeast Asia is the safest and most peaceful region in the world.

This is a marker of the success of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in maintaining stability.

This was conveyed by Prabowo when reviewing the ASEAN Summit media center at the Jakarta Convention Center, Thursday, September 7.

Prabowo said that the region with 655 million residents also has the best economic growth in the world.

"Now the Southeast Asia region is perhaps the safest and most peaceful in the world and our growth is also one of the best in the world," said Prabowo at the location as reported by Antara.

Prabowo said that ASEAN had been very successful since it was founded in 1967. Before the Southeast Asian bloc was formed, relations between countries in the region were often hit by tensions.

“You notice before there was ASEAN, ASEAN was full of tensions with each other. "We remember that in the past we had tensions with Malaysia, and with Singapore there were tensions," he said.

When asked about the absence of US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Prabowo considered this not a problem.

"I think he must be very busy, he is a big country, but he really cares about us, and he was present in Bali at the G20 Summit (2022)," said Prabowo.

The 43rd ASEAN Summit has entered its third day, where Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as Chair of ASEAN, will chair ASEAN meetings with a number of ASEAN partners, namely the 20th ASEAN-India Summit, the 18th East Asia Summit, the 3rd ASEAN-Australia and 13th ASEAN-UN Summit.

President Jokowi is also scheduled to hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, namely with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister (PM) James Marape, United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.