Prabowo And Anwar Ibrahim Agree To Strengthen RI-Malaysia Relations

JAKARTA - Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Series Anwar Ibrahim agreed that Indonesia and Malaysia's relations along with the cooperation between the two countries need to be strengthened in the future.

Prabowo, who is an elected presidential candidate, before PM Anwar Ibrahim emphasized that Indonesia will in principle continue to maintain good relations with friendly countries, including Malaysia and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In a meeting at the office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia, Thursday, as quoted from the official broadcast of the Ministry of Defense, Prabowo also conveyed one of his priorities in the future, strengthening Indonesia's defense.

Indonesia and Malaysia are neighboring countries and share border areas both on land and sea. The land boundary line separating the two countries stretches up to 2,000 kilometers, while in the sea, Indonesia and Malaysia share territorial waters in the Malacca Strait, Singapore Strait, South China Sea, and Sulawesi Sea.

Malaysia became the third country Prabowo visited in his first series of overseas trips since he was appointed as elected presidential candidate by the KPU on March 20, 2024. Prabowo visited China first on Sunday (31/3) and Japan, Wednesday (3/4).

During the meeting, Anwar Ibrahim revealed the contents of his meeting with Prabowo, namely related to issues in the region, opportunities to strengthen cooperation between Indonesia/Malaysia, and both of them also shared stories of their respective political journeys.

Anwar assessed that his political careers with Prabowo were not an easy journey. He and Prabowo, according to Anwar, went through various difficulties until they finally reached their destination.

"Our almost the same political career journey when tested by various obstacles before being inaugurated has also become a topic of relaxed discussion in addition to being instigated by Prabowo's story when he continued his medium-sized journey and education at the Victoria Institution (VI) Kuala Lumpur," said PM Anwar, who uses Malay language in his upload on his official X account @AnwarIbrahim shortly after meeting Prabowo as reported by ANTARA.

Anwar continued in the meeting, he also congratulated Prabowo directly as well as entrusted his hopes to the elected presidential candidate.

"Hopefully the Malaysian-Indonesian friendly relationship will continue to be close and strengthened for the common good in the future," continued Anwar.