Prabowo Speaks Openly About Critical Minerals Sought by Trump, Indonesia Won't Lose Out!
President Prabowo Subianto faced questions regarding a clause in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) document between himself and US President Donald Trump, which mandates that Indonesia open access to critical mineral mining for American companies.
During the “President Prabowo Answers” event broadcast on the Prabowo Subianto YouTube channel, the question was posed by Mohammad Faisal, Executive Director of the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia. He raised it because the clause in the ART runs counter to the government’s desire for downstream processing and industrialisation.
“If you look at the clause, we are required to open full access not just for processing, but up to mining. To be frank, I am asking this because there are some aspects that do not align with our priority programmes for downstream processing, and if we implement this, what about the future of our downstream processing and industrialisation?” said Faisal to Prabowo, quoted on Wednesday (25/3/2026).
In response, Prabowo stated that the clause does not mean Indonesia is opening access for American companies to extract as much critical mineral commodities as possible and export them raw. This is because the government has regulations limiting the export of raw commodities.
“We demand that raw materials be processed; if they want to mine and process here, they still have to do it—that’s the basis of downstream processing, processing in Indonesia,” said Prabowo.
He emphasised that this policy has also been applied to companies from other countries, such as China or European nations. The government stressed that in the ART, it is limited to opening access for US mining companies to operate, just as Freeport McMoRan has operated in Papua all along.
“The important thing is they request access; we don’t close access, but they have to pay the international market price, whether it’s Antam that operates or whatever, that’s how it is,” he explained.
He firmly stated that this commitment also applies to the ART related to the relaxation of the domestic component level (TKDN). Prabowo emphasised that the TKDN implemented so far has not been focused purely on Indonesian companies, but rather on foreign companies operating in Indonesia for their respective products.
“All these non-tariff barriers are for protection—what are we protecting? We don’t have the industry; do we have a car industry? No, respectfully, Japan has been in Indonesia for decades, but basically, those are Japanese products,” said Prabowo.
Therefore, Prabowo assured that, in addition to handling those policies, the government is now intensifying the process of industrialisation that truly produces products from the nation’s children, not just foreign products processed in Indonesia.
“Yes, now the important thing is that we must industrialise; we must build motorcycle factories, car factories—that’s where we get the real margin, the real value added. It’s impossible for us to sacrifice our national interests; there’s no problem for us, it’s impossible,” he asserted.