TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Defense Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto confirmed that he will attend the upcoming Cabinet Meeting in Nusantara Capital City or IKN. The plenary meeting will take place at the newly adorned Garuda Palace in the new capital in East Kalimantan on August 12, 2024.

"Of course, I will (attend the meeting)," said Prabowo briefly at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta before meeting President Joko Widodo or Jokowi on Friday, August 2, 2024.

Prabowo Subianto was tightlipped when asked further by reporters. The president-elect has spent the tail-end of July in Europe for a working visit.

From July 24 to 31, Prabowo visited several countries in the continent and met four leaders; French President Emmanuel Macron; Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Today, Prabowo reported the results of his European visit to President Jokowi at the State Palace.

Jokowi’s plan to hold a Cabinet Meeting in the new capital city was first revealed to Tempo by a Palace official. The source said Jokowi would hold the meeting at the end of July.

However, seeing as the infrastructure was incomplete, the meeting was delayed and Jokowi went back to Jakarta after a visit to IKN from July 28 to 30. He spent a couple of days in his office in Nusantara.

In a press statement in IKN on Sunday, July 29, Jokowi said that he was waiting for ministers who were on working visits abroad to hold the Cabinet Meeting in IKN. He also said he’s waiting for the infrastructure to be ready.

The president has expressed that he had no issue with the unfinished construction in IKN that delayed his Cabinet Meeting. However, he said everything must be ready when inviting guests to the new capital.

"We’re waiting for everything to be ready and complete. Not only the electricity but the AC, the chairs, and the furniture,” Jokowi said on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

Minister of Public Works and Housing, Basuki Hadimuljono confirmed that Jokowi has scheduled a meeting on the 12th of August.

"(The meeting) will be on August 12 and the president will head (to IKN) on August 11,” said Basuki at the Presidential Palace complex in Jakarta on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

DANIEL A. FAJRI

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