Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at Indo Defence 2025 Expo & Forum Opening at Indo Defence Arena, JI-Expo Kemayoran, Jakarta Province, Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
Assalamu ’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
Good morning,
May prosperity be upon all of us,
Shalom,
Salve,
Om swastiastu,
Namo Buddhaya,
Greetings of Virtue.
Excellency the 6th Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia and Senior Indonesian National Defence Force General Try Sutrisno;
Speaker of the House of Regional Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia Sultan Baktiar Najamudin;
Head of the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia Isma Yatun, and the Vice Head Budi Prijono;
Coordinating Ministers, Ministers, and Members of the Red and White Cabinet,
Chief of the Indonesian National Police Listyo Sigit Prabowo,
Commander of the Indonesian National Defence Forces General Agus Subiyanto, Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces: General Maruli Simanjuntak, Admiral Muhamad Ali, and Vice Chief Marshal Tedi Rizalihadi;
Distinguished Governor of Jakarta Pramono Anung;
Distinguished Guests from friendly countries: Ministers of Defence, Deputy Ministers of Defence, Commanders of the Armed Forces, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces;
Distinguished Guests: Ambassadors, CEOs of Participating Companies;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
Firstly, as a faithful human, let us express our gratitude to God the Almighty for the health and ability to attend this event.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the honor given to me, to open the expo.
This expo aims to give opportunities for domestic defence industries, friendly countries’ defence industries, Indonesian academics, all the leaders of political parties and societies, and the young generations of the Republic of Indonesia to keep updated with the development of science and technology, especially in defence.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The survival of a nation must be guaranteed by its defence. There is no sane nation willing to stage a war. War is the most destructive human activity. War causes destruction. However, human history teaches us that if a nation does not invest in its defence, its sovereignty could be violated, its independence could be lost, and it could be a slave nation.
This is how history taught us. Therefore, the nation of Indonesia, from its earliest beginnings, declares that Indonesia loves peace, but we love independence more.
The lessons of history have taught us, have taught all of us that a nation that does not want to invest in its defence usually will experience their independence being stolen away, will experience the nation being subjugated to the will of others, witnessing the wealth of the nation being stolen. This is the lesson of humankind. Therefore, defence is a necessity, defence is one of the guarantors of freedom and prosperity.
Our history taught us that for hundreds of years, our nation had been occupied by other nations, occupied. Our people, citizens, cultures, and politics were destroyed, and we belonged to other nations, and our wealth was taken away. Several weeks ago, research revealed that during the Dutch occupation, the Dutch took our wealth equal to USD31 trillion.
Our gross domestic product today is USD1.5 trillion, which means our wealth was given or taken away by other nations, probably, equal to 18 times of Indonesian product, 18 times of our GDP, or equal to about 140 financial years, 140 years of our financial year. During the Dutch colonialism, they enjoyed the number one world GDP per capita.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What did it teach us? It taught us, that if today we could save our wealth, our GDP per capita might be one of the highest in the world, almost all world economic institutions have predicted that Indonesia’s economy after I learnt defence posture figures, defence posture of all our neighbors immediate, intermediate, and even neighbors from afar, we live in a smaller planet. There cannot be any solution by force of military power. Therefore, I welcome all of our foreign guests.
I am very happy to see a lot of my friends here, and I appreciate your friendship and your goodwill towards Indonesia.
I emphasize again that we will respect our relations with all our neighbors. We are determined not to be dragged into any military groupings or alliances. We cannot, we cannot. That is not the will of the Indonesian people because we want the best relations with all powers. Therefore, we will not encroach on the national interests of other powers, but we respectfully request that all our friends and neighbors will also respect our sovereignty, our territorial integrity.
Let us work together for a common prosperity. There cannot be peace without respect and understanding. No nation, however small, wants to be intimidated. No nation, however small, however weak, wants to be humiliated. We are one human family. Let us work together.
Indonesia still has a lot of our people living in poverty and hunger. That’s why we want to concentrate on lifting our people from poverty, eradicating hunger, bringing education to all our children. But, we realize that we must have a strong defence.
There is an ancient saying in Asia: if you are wealthy, you must be strong. if you are wealthy and not strong, very soon you will not be wealthy. And, this is what we’ve experienced. Even now, we experience many, many violations of the law inside our country.
Thank you very much for your attention, thank you very much for your presence.
I hope everybody will enjoy this defence (expo). As a former soldier, I wish I could spend more time here, but I have other responsibilities, especially, taking care of the poor and the hungry.
That concludes my statement, ladies and gentlemen. Since there are numerous guests, so please allow me to respect them. That is because of the nature of Indonesians: we respect guests. So, because there are many guests, I speak in English, pardon me.
We respect guests. Too much respect so there was a guest for hundreds of years who had refused to leave Indonesia, we must fight. However, I say, I assert, for us war is the last resort. We fight if we must. But, if we must, we were raised to believe that it is better to die than to be recolonized.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We do not want to be ordered by anyone. We will respect all countries, we will respect them, we will cooperate with them, and we must show it to all.
That concludes my speech.
Thank you.
May prosperity be upon all of us,
Shalom,
Salve,
Om santi santi santi om,
Namo Buddhaya,
Greetings of Virtue.
Merdeka! (Freedom!)
(RD/MUR)