Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto expressed his intention to visit Middle Eastern countries as the ultimate leg of his state visit this month before returning to Indonesia.

The president is currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to attend the G20 Summit in the city on November 18-19, 2024. Prabowo will thereafter continue his visit to the United Kingdom to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer before returning to Indonesia.

"I am keen to have a stopover in the Middle East to visit some countries there, but we should first see if there will be any conflicts in my schedule or not," Prabowo stated on Sunday, Rio de Janeiro time, as observed from the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel here on Monday.

Although admitting his longing to return to Indonesia sooner, the president reaffirmed his commitment to concluding his state visit as scheduled and seeking time to stop in the Middle East.

President Prabowo's state visit this month started in China on November 8, 2024, where he met President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials to discuss bilateral relations. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of business deals worth USD10 billion.

He continued the visit to Washington, D.C., on November 10, 2024, and met President Joe Biden on November 12. During the bilateral meeting, they touched upon an array of issues, including Palestine's statehood, climate change, sustainable development, Myanmar's crisis, and Indonesia's Free Nutritious Meals program.

The third leg of his visit was to Peru on November 13, 2024, where he met President Dina Boluarte and attended the 2024 APEC Summit and its sideline agenda on November 15-16, 2024.

The president will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, until the conclusion of the G20 Summit in the city before continuing his visit to the United Kingdom.

During the press conference before the state visit on November 8, Prabowo also expressed his keenness to have a "stopover and visit the Middle East in the return trip to Indonesia."

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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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