common front on Palestine and new investments in the country

Following President-elect Prabowo's trip to Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Minister is currently visiting Jakarta. After the construction of the high-speed line between Jakarta and Bandung, China puts on the table a new commitment for the infrastructure of the new capital, Nusantara.

Jakarta () – The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, together with his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, today made a joint appeal from Jakarta to request a ceasefire in Gaza, and expressed their support for the full recognition of the State of Palestine in the United Nations. The position has been adopted when there are just a few hours left before the vote scheduled in the UN Security Council on a motion by Algeria that calls – precisely – for the recognition of the State of Palestine, but which will probably be stopped by the United States veto.

The joint appeal – accompanied by the request for a ceasefire in Gaza – was released within the framework of the long visit that Wang Yi is making these days to Indonesia to strengthen bilateral relations. At this time, in the Southeast Asia area, the People's Republic of China is focusing a lot of its attention on the axis between Beijing and Jakarta. Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping personally received the president-elect of Indonesia, General Prabowo Subianto, in Beijing, who later also stopped in Tokyo, where he met with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida.

Beyond international issues, the Chinese Foreign Minister's trip to Indonesia has focused on the issue of Beijing's investments in the region, just six months after the entry into service of the “Whoosh” high-speed train. “, built by Beijing, which connects Jakarta and Bandung, in the province of West Java, in just 30 minutes. Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia that has a rail connection of this type. Now Indonesia is studying this same partnership for Nusantara, its new capital in East Kalimantan, which will be officially inaugurated on August 17. In the meeting that Wang Yi held today with incumbent President Joko Widodo, he expressly raised the issue. “The president encourages cooperation (with China, ed.) in the construction of Nusantara, including transportation modalities,” said Marsudi, who accompanied Jokowi during the meeting. He added that the continuation of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project was also discussed: “It is necessary to accelerate the completion of the feasibility study for the extension of the route to Surabaya,” he explained.

It is important to consider that the arrival of Chinese trains in Indonesia has also launched other high-speed rail projects. A Brunei infrastructure company, Brunergy Utama, has launched a very ambitious project in recent days to build the “Trans-Borneo Railways”, a 1,620 kilometer line from the western coast of Borneo to its eastern end. The railway would connect Brunei with Malaysia and Indonesia, also involving the new capital, Nusantara.

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