Jakarta. The Indonesian government has confirmed President Prabowo Subianto’s attendance at the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur where he is expected to be in the same room as his American counterpart Donald Trump.

ASEAN chair Malaysia will host a gathering of Southeast Asian leaders and the heads of state from the group’s external partners on Oct. 26-28. Trump is expected to arrive in the Malaysian capital on Sunday, marking his first-ever ASEAN Summit during his second term. 

“All ASEAN leaders will attend the summit, including the newly elected Thai Prime Minister [Anutin Charnvakul],” Sidharto R Suryodipuro, a director-general at the Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday. 

Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao will also join the talks as ASEAN accepts Dili as its eleventh member. War-torn Myanmar will send a non-political representative. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese will also fly to Kuala Lumpur. 

Summits of such scale often become an opportunity for Prabowo to catch up with his foreign counterparts. Asked whether the Malaysia conference would include Prabowo-Trump pull-aside talks, Sidharto only said that the government had been “exploring some bilateral meetings”. The envoy did not specify on which world leader he was referring to.

“We’ll see what happens,” Sidharto said.

It was only less than two weeks ago when Prabowo met Trump at the Gaza Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. The meeting resulted in a peace declaration centered on putting an end to the Gaza war. 

Prabowo had also made international headlines after being caught in a hot mic moment, asking the American leader to meet his son Eric Trump for a possible business deal. Foreign Minister Sugiono clarified to the press that the exchange was merely a “casual conversation”, while adding that both presidents have a “fairly close relationship”. 

Eric is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, a conglomerate with a vast luxury real estate portfolio. The company's official website shows that it is working on a “world-class, six-star resort” in the tourist haven of Bali. Eric, too, had responded to the hot mic moment, saying that he was “honored” Prabowo was aware of his real estate projects in Indonesia.

"We have two of the biggest projects in Indonesia. We signed those in 2014, 2015, respectively. Got a great project in Bali. We have been working on it for a decade. We have a great project right outside Jakarta. A great golf course that I operate every single day," Eric recently told CNN in an interview. 

Indonesia-US ties have seen some major developments over the past year, particularly after Trump launched a tariff campaign against Jakarta. Indonesian goods are now subject to 19 percent import duties, while Jakarta had agreed to get rid of virtually all tariffs for the US. Both sides are currently trying to finalize the tariff agreement.

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