Indonesia

January 21, 2025 8:09 PM

Landslide kills 16 in Indonesia’s central Java, official says

A landslide in Indonesia's Central Java city of Pekalongan killed 16 people and injured 10, an official at the country's disaster mitigation agency said on Tuesday. The landslide was triggered by heavy rains in the area since Monday, agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. Authorities are now searching for three missing people, he added. Kompas TV footage showed that houses were heavily damaged and buried by the landslide, with cars also seen buried by the mud. The landslide damaged roads, leav...

January 16, 2025 4:35 PM

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto to attend India’s 76th Republic Day celebrations as Chief Guest

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will be the chief guest at India's 76th Republic Day celebrations on January 26, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday. This will be Prabowo's first visit to India since taking office as President of Indonesia in October 2024. India and Indonesia have a long history of ties that have developed into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in recent years. Indonesia also plays a key role in India’s Act East Policy and its vision for th...

January 7, 2025 9:03 AM

Indonesia officially joins BRICS as full member, endorsed by leaders of block

Brazil has announced that Indonesia has become a full member of the BRICS group. Brazil, which holds the presidency of the BRICS in 2025, said that Indonesia's candidature was endorsed by leaders of the bloc at the Johannesburg summit in 2023. In a statement, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry welcomed Indonesia for its entry into BRICS. It said that Indonesia and other BRICS members support the reform of the global governance institutions. "The Brazilian government welcomes Indonesia for its entr...

December 19, 2024 4:56 PM

Indian Navy Chief fosters camaraderie between India-Indonesia during reception onboard INS Mysore

Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) of the Indian Navy, hosted a deck reception aboard the indigenous guided missile destroyer, INS Mysore, in Jakarta on Wednesday, marking a significant event during his four-day official visit to Indonesia. The reception aimed to foster cultural exchange and strengthen the bond between India and Indonesia. The event, which was attended by high-ranking officials including Admiral Muhammad Ali, Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy, senior mil...

November 13, 2024 11:24 AM

Flights cancelled to and from Indonesia’s Bali due to volcanic ash

Several international airlines cancelled flights to and from Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Wednesday, after further eruptions of a volcano that has spewed ash clouds as high as 10 km (32,808 ft) and forced thousands to evacuate. Jetstar and Qantas said they had stopped flights to Bali on Wednesday for safety reasons because of volcanic ash, while plane tracking website Flightradar24 showed flights to the island by AirAsia and Virgin were also cancelled. Bali is Indonesia's top tourist h...

October 15, 2024 7:10 PM

How Indonesia’s outgoing Jokowi steered son Gibran to vice presidency

When Indonesian President Joko Widodo was first inaugurated in 2014, his eldest son didn't want to be there. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, then 27, had spent much of his life outside the limelight and "didn't agree with his father's decision to enter politics," said Andi Widjajanto, a former top adviser to Widodo. Gibran only showed up after his paternal grandmother twisted his arm. On Oct. 20, the once-reluctant princeling will be at another inauguration ceremony - this time as the vice president o...

September 10, 2024 11:44 AM

From Jakarta to Cairo: The Rise of Purpose-Built Capital Cities in the Global South

Egypt has a brand new capital city. So does Indonesia. Liberia and Thailand want one, too. Pollution. Traffic chaos. Broken roads. Flooded streets. Population explosion. Crumbling infrastructure. It’s a jungle out there. And, only the fittest can survive. Here, I’m not talking about your health but the city you live in. What if the city you live in is decaying or dying? How fit is your city? More importantly, is your country’s capital city future-ready? Add sea-level rise and global war...

September 4, 2024 1:36 PM

Pope Francis, in Muslim-majority Indonesia, warns against religious extremism

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged political leaders in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, to guard against religious extremism, which he said distorted people's religious beliefs through "deception and violence". In his first speech during an ambitious 12-day journey across Southeast Asia, where Christians are a small minority of the regional population, the pontiff said the Catholic Church would increase its efforts toward inter-religious dialogue in hopes of helping t...

September 3, 2024 3:21 PM

Pope Francis arrives in Indonesia to begin ambitious Asia-Pacific tour

Dozens of excited Indonesians waved on Tuesday as a motorcade carried Pope Francis through the capital as he began the first leg of an ambitious Asia-Pacific tour expected to urge global action on climate change as part of his longest trip yet. The 87-year-old pontiff, who will also visit East Timor, Singapore and Papua New Guinea over the next 10 days, was seated in a wheelchair as a lift disembarked him from a chartered aircraft at Jakarta airport. Two children in traditional clothes present...

August 30, 2024 4:33 PM

Indonesia to reform tourism on tropical island Bali

Indonesia will conduct an audit to reform tourism on the tropical island of Bali to improve tourism quality and preserve local culture and jobs, a senior minister said on Friday. About 200,000 foreigners currently live in Bali and have created problems such as crime, over-development and competition for employment, Luhut Pandjaitan, senior minister overseeing tourism said on his Instagram page. "Foreign tourists who bring problem here, such as narcotics, gangs, and other issues, we can deport ...