President Jokowi Defends Prabowo, Who Often Visits Abroad

President Jokowi (Wardany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Defense Minister (Menhan) Prabowo Subianto has been under the spotlight because since serving as minister he has often made trips abroad. Responding to the spotlight on his 'aides', President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) defended Prabowo when delivering directions at the Leadership Meeting of the Ministry of Defense, TNI and Polri.

According to Jokowi, Prabowo's visits to a number of countries are a form of defense diplomacy that needs to be carried out considering the wider spectrum of conflicts in various parts of the world.

"So, if someone questions Mr. Mehnan, going to a country, going to a country, going to a country, that is an obligatory part of our defense diplomacy for nothing else," Jokowi said to the participants and invited to the meeting at the Ministry of Defense's office. , Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, Thursday, January 23.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta said that if there were still people who questioned the departure of the former Kopassus commander abroad, it meant that he did not understand the importance of diplomacy.

"There are still those who ask that, (meaning) they don't understand defense diplomacy," he said.

Apart from diplomacy, Jokowi also knew about Prabowo's trips abroad in order to see the defense equipment that Indonesia wanted to buy. This is because Indonesia must prepare weapons to uphold its sovereignty.

Remind the issue of sovereignty

President Jokowi when delivering directions at the Leadership Meeting of the Ministry of Defense, TNI and Polri (Wardany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

In the leadership meeting, Jokowi reminded that state sovereignty is the most important thing in national defense. So, he emphasized, state sovereignty must be maintained by all components of the nation.

"I have repeatedly said, I emphasize that sovereignty is a fixed price. Sovereignty is non-negotiable, there is no bargaining," said Jokowi.

In addition, he also conveyed that the presence of the TNI and Polri ranks at the meeting was a positive symbol of synergy between state apparatus. Jokowi also said that serious work in safeguarding the country's sovereignty was urgently needed considering that Indonesia's vast territory was very large.

"I command all ranks of the TNI, Polri to work seriously in order to strengthen and maintain the sovereignty of our country, Indonesia to stand at the forefront of protecting the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia," he said, adding that the TNI and Polri must be ready to face all threats that are related to it. sovereignty.

This threat, according to Jokowi, is not only in the form of conventional warfare but also in other forms. So that the TNI and Polri are expected to be ready to overcome this.

"Most importantly, we must be able to overcome all spectrums of defense ranging from internal conflict, asymmetric warfare, guerrilla warfare, proxy warfare, and hybrid warfare that combines military and non-military, conventional and non-conventional strategies," he concluded.