TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo plans to visit Bangkok, Thailand, to offer condolences following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on October 13.

"He will go there this week," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Monday.

According to the presidential secretarys office, President Jokowi, as he is also called, is scheduled to visit Miangas, North Sulawesi, on Wednesday from where he would proceed to Bangkok, Thailand.

Kalla added that President Jokowis decision to offer condolences in person showed the depth of the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Thailand as well as common members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"He has been Indonesias friend since the era of Bung Karno (Indonesias first president) and, therefore, he was close to us all," he acknowledged.

The vice president said the white elephant sculpture in front of the Jakarta National Museum was a present from the King of Thailand and is a symbol of friendship.

"Besides being good neighbors, our relations with Thailand have been very long. If you visit the National Museum, you will see a sculpture of an elephant. That came from King Rama the Fifth," he added.

King Rama 5th or King Chulalongkorn, who ruled Thailand from 1873 to 1910, gave the sculpture to the government of Batavia as a memento to mark his 1871 visit.

In modern times, the close relations between Indonesia and Thailand were further underlined when the two countries foreign ministers, Adam Malik and Thanat Koman, along with three other leaders from Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, initiated the establishment of ASEAN in 1967.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej died at the age of 88 after being on the throne for 70 years. He was seen as someone who contributed towards uniting the Thai nation.

On Monday afternoon, Vice President Jusuf Kalla reached the Thai Embassy in Jakarta to convey condolences to ambassador Paskorn Siriyaphan.

ANTARA