Jakarta. Anticipation is rising ahead of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, with Indonesia calling the talks a positive signal to the rest of the world that has been rocked by tariff wars between the two superpowers.

Trump and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang attended the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, but the most-anticipated meeting will be the one involving Xi in South Korea.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said that his government was looking forward to the forthcoming Trump-Xi talks.

“[The US and China’s] constructive engagement with ASEAN strengthens regional stability,” Sugiono told the closed-door conference, according to the transcript provided by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

“Indonesia, therefore, welcomes the planned bilateral meeting between President Trump and President Xi Jinping in Korea in the coming days. When the US and China can sustain dialogue, the entire world breathes easier,” the minister said. 

The high-stakes trade talks are set to take place on the margins of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in the ancient South Korean city of Gyeongju on Thursday. This will mark their first face-to-face meeting of Trump’s second term. Trump has threatened new 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods starting on Nov. 1, in response to Beijing launching sweeping curbs on its rare earth exports. Prabowo will also attend the APEC Summit.

Under Prabowo, Indonesia has held on to what it called a “a thousand friends are too few, one enemy is too many” approach as the resource-rich country tries to get along with everyone. Trump and Prabowo have been getting closer as the latter kept endorsing Washington’s Gaza peace efforts. Trump had even called Prabowo a “friend”. 

Defense cooperation with China has been steadily growing since Prabowo assumed power. Xi not long ago invited Prabowo to China’s Victory Day Parade, which displayed Beijing’s plethora of cutting-edge military technologies. Indonesia recently hinted that it would purchase Chinese fighter jets -- the Chengdu J-10s -- as the country upgrades its weaponry.

At home, Indonesia is diversifying its export destinations with a flurry of trade pacts signed following Trump’s tariff campaign. Jakarta is now subject to a lower-than-threatened 19 percent tariff on its US-bound goods, and these hikes have taken a toll on its exports, causing a 12.39 percent month-on-month drop in the first month the new rates kicked in. ASEAN -- of which Indonesia is a member -- has just made another upgrade to its free trade agreement with China to include areas such as green and digital economies.

Official statistics showed that Indonesia-US trade hit $29 billion between January and August 2025. The numbers are a small fraction of Indonesia-China trade, which totaled nearly $97.2 billion over the same period.

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