Trump at the Gaza Summit: Prabowo is a Strong Leader, I Don't Want to Fight Him

JAKARTA - US President Donald J. Trump praised President Prabowo Subianto's firmness when opening the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) High-Level Conference (HLC) in Washington DC, USA, Thursday, February 19 local time.

In his opening speech at the first meeting of the Peace Council, Trump called President Prabowo a figure who was respected by all parties (respected by everybody), so he did not want to fight against him.

"The figure that I really like is of course a strong leader, I don't want to fight him, President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo, thank you," said President Trump when calling President Prabowo at the BoP Summit.

Trump also highlighted the greatness of Indonesia which was led by Prabowo. He admitted that he was surprised when he found out the number of Indonesian people.

"President Prabowo, he is a big figure. I asked him, 'How many people are there in Indonesia? He answered that there were 240 million, no, no, say it again, 240 million people, your country, a big country.' You have worked very well, and you are respected by everyone. Thank you for being here, thank you Mr. President," Trump told Prabowo.

According to Trump, the size of Indonesia reflects a responsibility that is not light, so Prabowo is considered capable of carrying out this role well.

President Prabowo, who was sitting in the front row in the area of heads of state, also showed a gesture of thanks to Trump for the compliments he gave.

President Prabowo, who was present wearing his typical black turban, sat in the front row flanked by Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan.

President Prabowo had a chat with the President of Kazakhstan and the Deputy PM of the UAE before the BoP Summit took place.

In his opening speech, President Trump called on a number of leaders of the countries present, and conveyed his personal impressions of the leaders of the countries. Several heads of state such as Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban received quite a long praise from President Trump during the event. Trump also used the moment to show that he had contributed to reconciling several conflicting countries, especially when Trump called the leaders of the countries from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Pakistan.

After calling one by one the leaders of the member countries of the Board of Peace, President Trump continued to explain the purpose of the institution, which is to create peace in Gaza, Palestine.

In the same speech, Trump also thanked a number of countries that contributed a total of up to 7 billion US dollars to a package of assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza through the Board of Peace. The seven countries, namely Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait.

Then, Trump said Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan had committed to preparing troops to restore the situation in Gaza.

On the same occasion, Trump also announced that the United States was committed to contributing 10 billion US dollars to the Board of Peace.