Jakarta. US President Joe Biden recently told his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto that he wanted to work with Jakarta on energy transition.

Biden hosted Prabowo at the White House on Tuesday local time. The latter is currently in Washington as part of a two-week-long overseas trip that includes stops in China, the UK, Brazil, and Peru. 

Biden said Indonesia-US’ diplomatic ties had spanned 75 years, and that the bilateral partnership has become “stronger than ever”. The outgoing president then listed the topics of discussion that they would later address, namely areas that could strengthen the existing cooperation. That includes having both countries team up to fight the climate crisis.

“Indonesia is a critical player in the clean energy transition,” Biden told Prabowo, shortly before the bilateral talks.

Biden revealed that the two leaders would discuss global matters, including the Gaza crisis and the South China Sea. Building a resilient supply chain and advancing a “free and open Indo-Pacific with ASEAN at the center” would also be high on the agenda, Biden said.

Like most bilateral meetings, the rest of the dialogue was not open for media coverage. The government is expected to reveal what Prabowo and Biden had agreed on later. Prabowo did not mention energy transition in his remarks that were open for press coverage, but the former army general said Indonesia considered the US as a "very great friend".

“I will work very hard to strengthen the Indonesia-US relationship,” Prabowo said.

Indonesia aims to reach net zero emissions by 2060 or sooner. The coal-reliant country has secured US funding under the global climate package Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The JETP money -- which totals around $20 billion -- comes from a coalition of rich countries and several global financial institutions. The funding aims to help Indonesia wean off coal.

Indonesia is currently building a domestic electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem as it tries to take better advantage of its abundant nickel reserves. Nickel is a mainstay ingredient in EV battery production. Jakarta has nudged Washington into striking a critical mineral deal, which could eventually make batteries made from Indonesian nickel more attractive in the US market.

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