Only Prabowo Can Make It Happen: Join the Abraham Accords
By Alex Alfirraz Scheers and Theo Zenou
At 74, Prabowo Subianto is Indonesia’s oldest president but he packs all the energy of a young man on a mission. Last year alone, he went on 32 overseas trips and met with world leaders including Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin, Lula and Narendra Modi. His diplomatic offensive is intended to raise Indonesia’s profile on the world stage and position it as a major power outside Southeast Asia. In the process, the president has shown again and again that he is not afraid of taking big swings.
The latest came on Feb 19 at the inaugural meeting of Mr Trump’s Board of Peace, which Mr Prabowo joined in January. To great fanfare, the United States announced that Indonesia will serve as deputy commander of the International Stabilisation Force in Gaza. The force will demilitarise the Palestinian enclave so that it can be rebuilt safely. It will be composed of 20,000 soldiers provided by five countries. Among them are Morocco, Albania and Kazakhstan. Indonesia will send at least 8,000 soldiers.
Next, Mr Prabowo should take an even bigger swing: Indonesia should normalise relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords. Brokered by the US in 2020, the accords established ties between Israel and Muslim nations including the UAE, Morocco and Sudan. Kazakhstan has since come aboard. Joining now would turbocharge Indonesia’s economy and show the world that the country is a serious geopolitical player, unencumbered by ideology.
Only Mr Prabowo can make it happen. Indonesia is a Muslim- majority nation where public opinion is overwhelmingly anti-Israel. And yet, unlike his predecessors, the president has long taken a pragmatic approach towards the Jewish state. He pushed for normalisation as defence minister in 2021, according to reports, and had under-the-radar discussions with Israeli officials. He also supported agricultural projects that brought Israeli technology to Indonesia. At the last UN General Assembly, Mr Prabowo struck aconciliatory tone on the Israel-Palestine conflict. “We must also recognise, we must also respect, and we must also guarantee the safety and security of Israel,” he said. “Only then can we have real peace.” He ended his address with the Hebrew word “Shalom”.
To be sure, Mr Prabowo would encounter fierce domestic opposition if Indonesia joined the Abraham Accords. He has already faced pushback for participating in the Board of Peace, though it is worth noting this has not resulted in mass protests and Mr Prabowo has managed to placate Indonesia’s influential Islamic organisations. Still, the president has been accused of abandoning the Palestinian cause and being a tool of “neocolonialism”. The latter is a stinging charge in Indonesia. The Indonesian constitution, drafted in 1945 as the country declared independence from the Netherlands, states that “all colonialism must be abolished in this world as it is not in conformity with humanity and justice”.
But Mr Prabowo should ignore the naysayers and charge ahead. As John F. Kennedy argued in his classic book Profiles in Courage, a statesman must take unpopular decisions when they are in the national interest. And joining the Abraham Accords is definitely in Indonesia’s national interest.
How Indonesia stands to gain
The Indonesian economy is the largest in Southeast Asia and is expected to surpass Russia’s in purchasing power parity this year. But this is largely a result of its size: Indonesia is the fourth most-populous country in the world, with nearly 290 million people. It has a long way to go before it can join the ranks of advanced economies. At present, it is too dependent on exporting commodities like nickel, palm oil and coffee. This is not sustainable. Indonesia needs to move up the value chain, diversify its services and educate its workforce.
Israel can help. The “start-up nation” is a high-tech powerhouse: it excels at AI, fintech, agrotech, cybersecurity and healthcare.Investments and technology transfers would help Indonesia modernise. Look no further than the benefits Morocco is reapingfrom partnering with Israel. Among other successes, it has become the first African country to manufacture drones and it is harnessing Israeli water desalination technology to combat drought. As Morocco’s Economy Minister Nadiah Fettah Alaoui said: “We reallyhave a lot to learn from this cooperation.”
But joining the Abraham Accords is not just about doing business with Israel. It also means closer ties with the UAE, a major source of investment, as well as the US. And Indonesia could extract huge concessions from the Trump administration. The reason is simple: the Abraham Accords are the US president’s signature foreign policy achievement.
Yet momentum has stalled recently. Saudi Arabia, long tipped to join, is locked in a cold war with the UAE and has made it clear it won’t join any time soon. Indonesia’s entry would deliver a massive win for Mr Trump. That would translate into special treatment for Indonesia. The accords have bipartisan support, so that would continue whether a Republican or a Democrat is in the White House.
For Indonesia, the diplomatic benefits of joining would be as important as the economic ones. For one, the move would give the country a seat at the table in the Middle East and allow it to influence what happens next. As Mr Prabowo has reminded Indonesians, if they want to help the Palestinians, they need to be involved on the ground. For another, it would signal to the international community that Indonesia is a force to be reckoned with.
For too long now, the country has been an extra in world affairs. It has been held back by an outdated doctrine – inherited from the 1955 Bandung Conference – that puts vague concepts of Third World solidarity above hard power interests.
The time has come for Indonesia to evolve. Our new multipolar world order is Darwinian. Countries must either mature or stagnate. Realism is the only way forward. Indonesia therefore needs to be clear-eyed and accept the world as it is. If it does, the country has tremendous potential to thrive in decades to come.
This is not to say that Indonesia has to become something that it is not – its rich culture and its commitment to pluralism, democracy and justice are all traits it can be proud of. However, joining the Abraham Accords would be a game-changer, showing the world that Indonesia is ready to become a more responsible, bolder version of itself. Because of its size and strategic geography, it can one day become a major world power. But it can’t let ideology get in the way of economic development and diplomatic clout.
Mr Prabowo can establish a legacy as a true statesman for peace. And that starts with joining the Abraham Accords.
This article was published in The Strait Times on February 21, 2026.
