Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto wants Indonesian schools to teach French, further expanding the list of new foreign languages to be included in the country’s curriculum.

Prabowo unveiled the plans in front of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday local time. The retired army general believes there is still room for improvement in terms of educational cooperation with Paris as trade and defense ties take off. 

“I have instructed that [students in] Indonesian schools of all levels must learn French,” Prabowo said. 

He even ended his speech with “merci beaucoup, mesdames et messieurs” -- French for “thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen”. This was not the first time for Prabowo -- a fluent English speaker -- to make such a promise in his interactions with foreign leaders. Last year, Prabowo told the visiting Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that “Portuguese would be a priority language in Indonesia’s educational system”. 

Some Indonesian high schools teach French, while many students also take lessons outside formal classes. The French government has also set up a cultural agency -- Institut Français d'Indonésie -- to promote the language. As many as 396 million people speak French worldwide, making it one of the fourth most widely spoken languages.

A joint leaders’ statement wrote that the governments had made education a “priority area” in bilateral cooperation. Beyond conventional education, they also agreed to partner on “language training” for police forces.

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