He is pro-Indian, say experts
Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, has elected Prabowo Subianto as the new president. According to experts, Indonesia’s relations with India may become stronger after Subianto comes to power. Subianto has previously been the country’s Defence Minister. Earlier, Subianto expressed his desire to buy India’s supersonic cruise missile ‘Brahmos’ like the Philippines. Subianto has been compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Subianto is retired from the army. He supports strong ties with India. India and Indonesia share maritime borders. Even after the Corona crisis in the year 2020, Subianto visited India and met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. He wanted to strengthen defence ties with India. This includes the Brahmos missile deal.
Why is Subianto compared with Prime Minister Modi ?
Subianto can implement India’s highly successful mid-day meal and milk scheme in schools in Indonesia. Subianto had mentioned this many times during the election campaign. Subianto’s brother Hashim is a major industrialist in the country and has many business connections in India. Subianto advocates an alliance in Asia that includes India, but many Western countries including the US are accusing them of violating human rights. The US did not give them a visa. This is the same story as the US had banned Modi’s visa before he became the Prime Minister.