Prabowo Reveals Pakistan's Steps to Address US-Iran War: They Consider It Critical

JAKARTA — President Prabowo Subianto has drawn a comparison between Pakistan’s response to the escalating conflict between the United States and Iran and Indonesia’s approach to the heating situation in the Middle East.

Pakistan has already designated the US-Iran conflict as a critical situation, referring to it as “critical measures”, Prabowo said.

Prabowo presented this comparison through a slide during a plenary cabinet session at the State Palace, Presidential Palace Complex, Central Jakarta, on Friday, 13 March 2026.

“So they consider this critical already, so they call it critical measures. It is as if, for them, this is like we experienced during Covid-19,” Prabowo said on Friday.

The country has implemented 50 per cent work-from-home arrangements for government and private sector offices.

Working days have also been reduced to four days per week. Moreover, the country has even cut salaries for parliament members.

Parliament members are receiving a 25 per cent salary reduction, whilst cabinet members receive no salary.

“And all these salary savings are collected to help the most vulnerable groups or the weakest groups,” Prabowo said.

“They stopped all foreign visits, then they reduced it, they are not allowed to use government funds for parties and such events,” he elaborated.

Furthermore, learning at higher education institutions has been shifted to online delivery, and school activities have been halted for two weeks.

“This is just an example, mind you, this is an example. What I mean is, we could have several days to study this matter, right. I think we should also strive to implement savings,” Prabowo said.

“I believe in two to three years we will be very strong, but we still need to conserve consumption. In doing so, we hope that we will always ensure that our deficit does not increase. In fact, our aspiration is that if possible, we have no deficit,” Prabowo added.