JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto has pledged to increase contributions to the UN’s Palestine agency and send more medical teams to Gaza, his office said on Wednesday.
Subianto, who is still serving as Indonesia’s defense minister before he takes the top office in October, on Tuesday attended an international aid conference on Gaza in Jordan, where he said the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged strip must be addressed immediately.
“Indonesia is willing and ready to contribute to all efforts to lessen the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Palestine and we are hoping to work together with countries in the region,” he was quoted as saying in a Ministry of Defense statement.
During the conference, co-hosted by King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Subianto said that “stronger support for an independent and sovereign Palestine” was the real solution to Israel’s war on Gaza, in which more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed since October.
“We will significantly increase our contributions to UNRWA and other immediate humanitarian assistance. We are ready to deploy more medical teams and a field hospital to operate in Gaza,” Subianto said, adding that Indonesia was also ready to deploy its hospital ship and assist in humanitarian airdrops.
In December, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Indonesia was going to triple its contributions to UNRWA. The Southeast Asian nation has also sent several aid shipments to Gaza.
Jakarta does not have diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and has been one of the most vocal supporters of Palestine since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. It sees Palestinian statehood as mandated by its constitution, which calls for the abolition of colonialism.
Subianto also said Indonesia was willing to evacuate 1,000 patients to be treated in Indonesian hospitals, as well as children and orphans for post-trauma treatment and schooling, and return them all to Gaza once it was safe to do so.
“Although we are willing to support and contribute to all these efforts, the … final solution to this problem is a two-state solution,” he told the conference.
In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Subianto said Indonesia was “ready to contribute” on all efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire.
Last week, US President Joe Biden laid out what he called a “three-phase” Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which would include negotiations for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave and also an exchange of some Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Qatar and Egypt are now leading mediation efforts for the plan, which has since been adopted as a resolution by the UN Security Council.
“Indonesia is ready to work with the US, Egypt and Qatar to ensure that negotiations continue to achieve a permanent ceasefire and a just and lasting peace in Palestine,” Subianto told Blinken.
“An immediate, full and comprehensive ceasefire is essential to revive the peace process.”
Following his meetings in Jordan, Subianto traveled to Jeddah, where he is scheduled to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
