Indonesia seeks 'balanced' U.S. relations after Obama visit

The White House announced Monday that Obama will visit Jakarta in March with his family, in what will be a nostalgic return to his childhood home where he lived with his late mother and Indonesian stepfather in the 1960s.

The trip has been greatly anticipated in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country since Obama's inauguration, which was welcomed here as the start of a new era.

Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the trip was a chance for Obama to set relations on a more “equal” and substantive footing.

He criticized previous U.S. presidents for focusing too much on principles of democracy and human rights at the expense of more practical issues of mutual concern.

“We want relations between Indonesia and the U.S. not only to cover one issue. There used to be an imbalance, only democracy and human rights,” he was quoted as saying by Antara state news agency.

“We want relations to be balanced, covering trade, the economy, science and technology, health and other issues. This equal partnership will benefit both sides,” he said,

Jakarta and Washington have said they are working on announcing a new “strategic partnership” during the visit, but the details have not been released.

“For the strategic partnership, there are several agreements in preparation and there will be an 'action plan,'” Djalal said.

He also acknowledged that the visit would have a “sentimental” aspect for Obama, who went to primary school in the wealthy neighborhood of Menteng between 1967 and 1971 and has spoken fondly of those days in his memoirs.

But hopes that the U.S. president would visit Indonesia in his first year as president and use the country as a springboard to re-engage with the Muslim world were dashed when he chose Egypt instead.

Despite the initial disappointment, the massive Southeast Asian archipelago of 234 million people remains an important country in that effort, as an example of an emerging democracy with a largely moderate Muslim majority.

Even so, security will be extremely tight given Indonesia's trouble with Al-Qaeda-linked extremists dating back to the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali -- which killed 202 people, including many Western tourists.

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