Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 11/08/2010 9:46 AM | Headlines
The Presidential Palace in Jakarta announced Sunday that US President Barack Obama would very likely continue with his plan to visit Indonesia, despite international airlines cancelling flights to and from Jakarta due to volcanic ash.
Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post that there were no indications that Obama would cancel his trip.
Faizasyah said Obama was scheduled to arrive at Halim Perdana Kusumah Airport in East Jakarta at noon on Tuesday before meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta in the afternoon.
Obama will leave the country on Wednesday after delivering a public speech at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.
“So far, everything is still scheduled according to plan. The two leaders will launch the comprehensive partnership and discuss bilateral, regional and global issues,” Faizasyah said.
“The meeting with Obama will be held in the afternoon after the President’s meeting with the Austrian president at noon,” he added.
Coinciding with Obama’s visit, Austrian President Heinz Fischer will also be in Indonesia on Tuesday and Wednesday. There have been likewise no changes in Fischer’s visit plans.
Faizasyah said Yudhoyono, who as of Sunday evening was still in Yogyakarta to monitor rescue and evacuation efforts at Mount Merapi, would return to Jakarta on Monday ahead of his meetings with the two foreign leaders.
Obama’s Indonesian visit is part of his 10-day Asian tour starting in India, where he is set to spend three days focusing on business and economic issues.
He will then head to Indonesia where he spent four years of his childhood before heading to South Korea for a G20 meeting and then Japan for an APEC meeting.
Obama has twice cancelled plans to visit Indonesia, citing US domestic issues. He had said he looked forward to visiting Indonesia with his wife Michelle and two daughters for more than a couple of days for what officials here claimed was a partly sentimental tour. This time he will only be accompanied by Michelle for a visit lasting less than 24 hours.
University of Indonesia international relations expert Hariyadi Wirawan said that although Obama seemed to still want to explore the “emotional aspect” of his visit to Indonesia, the situation in Indonesia and his time constraints would not enable him to do so.
“His visit will focus more on the US government’s efforts to indicate its additional agendas in Asia, especially regarding recent changes concerning the region, such as economic tension between the US and China,” Hariyadi told the Post.
He said Obama would likely focus only on security and economic issues in talks with Yudhoyono, adding that using Indonesia to bridge the gap between the West and the Muslim world was no longer high on agenda.
“The issue has lost momentum with the cancellation of the two previous visits. His short schedule indicates Obama is only visiting because he doesn’t want to appear to be playing down US-Indonesia ties by cancelling a third time,” Hariyadi said.
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