Prabowo Claims He Is Highly Respected Abroad

Prabowo Subianto delivered the account at a plenary session of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday, 20 May 2026. ‘Fellow members, when I travel abroad as the President of Indonesia, I am highly respected,’ said the Chairman of the Gerindra Party. He said that many countries now sought assistance from Indonesia, including for fertiliser supplies, noting that Indonesia could supply fertilisers to other countries because it has surplus production while global fertiliser distribution is disrupted by conflict in the Middle East.

He added that some of the countries requesting supplies include Australia, India, Brazil, and the Philippines. ‘Imagine Indonesia now able to help countries wealthier than us,’ the former Defence Minister said.

However, Prabowo cautioned that this should not make Indonesia arrogant, noting that there are still many shortcomings to acknowledge in Indonesia. ‘We must be able to tackle misappropriation in our country. If so, we will grow extraordinarily,’ he said.

Prabowo attended the plenary to present the macroeconomic framework and the core policies of fiscal policy (KEM-PPKF). He becomes the first president to present the KEM-PPKF directly to the parliament.

In his speech, he targeted the rupiah at around Rp 16,800 to Rp 17,500 per US dollar in the 2027 budget year of the KEM-PPKF. ‘Our fiscal and monetary strategies must be able to keep our exchange rate stable against world currencies,’ he said.

In terms of fiscal posture, the government plans a 2027 APBN deficit to be between 1.8% and a maximum of 2.4% of GDP. This figure represents a strong government’s commitment to curb and narrow the deficit, given that the 2025 APBN deficit reached 2.92%, or 0.8 percentage points below the 3% ceiling.

Mukhamad Misbakhun, chair of the Finance Commission of the DPR, said that usually the macroeconomic framework and fiscal policy are delivered by the Finance Minister on behalf of the President. ‘Today it was read directly by the President, which marks a new tradition,’ he said at the Parliament Complex, Senayan, Wednesday, 20 May 2026.