Jakarta. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to fly to Indonesia for talks on bilateral ties. Wang will embark on an overseas trip on April 18-23. He will visit Indonesia, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea.

“[Wang Yi] will chair the fourth meeting of the China-Indonesia High-Level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism,” the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote on its official website on Tuesday.

Beijing did not go into details on the matters that Wang Yi would put forward in the upcoming meeting with the Indonesian representatives. The statement also did not mention with whom Wang Yi would be meeting.

In 2021, Indonesia and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a high-level dialogue. Under this pact, both countries agree to hold a high-level meeting to review and coordinate their cooperation once a year. 

The last of such meetings took place last year in Beijing. Wang Yi at the time hosted senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. The ministers had talked about the China-funded Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train, among other things. Wang Yi told Luhut that both countries could strengthen cooperation on development financing and green economy, to name a few. China also sought to deepen cooperation on maritime affairs with Indonesia.

Earlier this month, President-Elect Prabowo Subianto flew to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping face to face. Prabowo said that he would carry on the outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s “friendly policies” towards China, including the “One China Policy”. In other words, Jakarta will continue to consider Taiwan as an inalienable part of China.

China is a major economic partner of Indonesia. Throughout 2023, the Southeast Asian country recorded $7.4 billion of foreign direct investment from China. Also in the same year, bilateral trade stood at $127.8 billion. Trade numbers amounted to almost $10.8 billion in January 2024 alone.

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