Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto congratulated US President-elect Donald Trump over a phone call, on his election victory. Subianto also expressed a desire to meet Trump and congratulate him in person.
The Indonesian president arrived in Washington on an official visit that included meeting the outgoing President Joe Biden. He will hold talks on strengthening bilateral cooperation, the White House said in a statement, according to the South China Morning Post.
Subianto had visited China before, where he met President Xi Jinping and signed $10 billion in new deals at a business forum in Beijing.
The 72-year-old president shared a video of his conversation with Trump on his social media.
Glad to be connected directly with President Elect @realDonaldTrump to extend my heartfelt congratulations on his election as the 47th President of the United States.
I am looking forward to enhance the collaboration between our two great nations and to more productive… pic.twitter.com/KfSVUsZSGc
— Prabowo Subianto (@prabowo) November 11, 2024
“If possible, I would like to call personally on you. Wherever you are, I would like to fly to congratulate you personally, sir,” said Prabowo Subianto. “We’ll do that, anytime you want,” Donald Trump replied.
In the video, Subianto said he was shocked by the two assassination attempts on Trump during his election campaign and said he was happy because he was safe. To this Trump said: “I got very lucky”.
During the phone call, Trump said Prabowo was doing an “amazing” job leading Indonesia. Trump also complimented, the Indonesian president’s English speaking skills. “Your English is so good – very good, the English,” Trump said, Prabowo responded to this “All my training is in America, sir,” Prabowo said.
Subianto was sworn in as the president of Indonesia last month, before which he had served as Minister for Defence from 2019 to 2024 under former President Joko Widodo. He entered politics after the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998. But his bid for the presidency in 2014 and 2019 were unsuccessful.
‘Netizens irked by the conversation’
The video shared on X, formerly Twitter got over 2 million views and hundreds of comments. Most netizens felt irked by the conversation saying it was “not an equal conversation”. One user commented, “Why are you talking to him like he’s your boss? I counted you said ‘sir’ at least 40 times.”
On the same line, another wrote, “Stop calling him “sir”. Are you not president of Indonesia???”
