President Jokowi Attends Dinner With President Biden

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) attended a dinner between the leaders of ASEAN countries and the President of the United States (US) Joe Biden.

The banquet was held at the White House, Washington DC, USA, Thursday, May 12 evening local time (WS) or Friday morning Indonesian time.

From the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, President Jokowi left for the White House and arrived at around 17:20 p.m. President Jokowi was immediately greeted by President Biden and then shook hands, took a group photo, and signed the state guest book.

After that, President Jokowi together with the leaders of other ASEAN countries held a group photo session by facing the National Monument. President Jokowi then headed to the Blue Room to join the dinner.

During the dinner, President Jokowi had the honor of replying to President Biden's toast.

In his introductory toast, President Jokowi said that the ASEAN-US Special Summit was the right momentum to strengthen the ASEAN-US partnership in the future and welcomed in principle the ASEAN-US agreement to have a comprehensive strategic partnership. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is the highest status of partnership.

"This partnership is very important in the midst of the current world situation filled with uncertainty. For that, I invite all of us to raise the glass for the ASEAN-US partnership which continues to contribute to strengthening the values ​​of multilateralism, regional peace and stability, the driving force of regional prosperity," said President Jokowi reported by Antara.

At around 20.00 p.m., the dinner was over and President Jokowi left the White House to return to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Also accompanying President Jokowi on the occasion was Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi.