The First Official Overseas Trip, Indonesian President Joko Widodo Visits Malaysia

Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived today for a two-day official visit to Malaysia.

The special aircraft ferrying the president, popularly known as Jokowi, and his wife Iriana Joko Widodo, flew in from Bali and landed at the KL International Airport (KLIA) at 7.50pm.

Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu welcomed Jokowi at the Bunga Raya Complex. Also present was the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Rusdi Kirana.

Jokowi and his wife were in maroon traditional Balinese attire.

This is the first official visit abroad by Jokowi after having been re-elected for the second term in the presidential election on April 17.

The visit is expected to strengthen the existing strong bilateral relations between Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to Bernama, an official welcoming ceremony will be held tomorrow morning at the Perdana Square in Putrajaya, after which Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will have a meeting with Jokowi to discuss bilateral issues and cooperation, as well as exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Indonesian economist Dr Mahbubi Ali said Jakarta should tap Malaysia’s expertise in Islamic banking for their mutual benefit.

The head of economy, finance, awqaf and zakat, who is also Associate Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia, said this aspect was seldom emphasised by the two administrations but is important for promoting the expertise as reference for other Islamic countries as comparable to that of the Middle East.

“Maybe in the economic aspect, we need to move forward as a region and jointly set up a regional centre for ASEAN to be a respected region like the European Union. This will strengthen the position of ASEAN and Asia in the context of Islamic finance. Malaysia and Indonesia can start cooperating to kick-start this move,” he said to Bernama.