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By APD writer Maverick
JAKARTA, June 30 (APD) – The United States then-president Barrack Obama met in casual session with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in the latter’s official residence, Bogor Presidential Palace, on Friday, in the final leg of Obama’s tour in the country.
Arriving alone in the palace without his wife and children, the 44th United States president was warmly welcomed by President Widodo, First Lady Iriana Widodo and the president’s son Kaesang Pangarep in the afternoon.
Shortly after his arrival, President Widodo led Obama to the palace’s veranda where the president briefly explained about the palace and things that surrounding his official residence, including the botanical garden that sits in the palace’s backyard.
The two were then moved to a café located in the palace’s compound rode a golf car driven by President Widodo and spent around 40 minutes casual talks in the café while the rain poured down outside.
A presidential palace media and information officer Bey Machmuddin said no particular discussion had been set in the meeting between President Widodo and Obama, saying that it was a meeting between friends.
No joint statement was made by the two after the casual meeting at the café.
President Widodo personally invited Obama when the Indonesian president made an official visit to the United States in Oct. 2015.
Obama was scheduled to stay in Jakarta from Friday to Sunday, to deliver a keynote speech in an Indonesian diaspora conference on Saturday.
The speech would be his first in Asia after he retired from presidential post in January this year.
Prior to his arrival in Indonesian capital, Obama and his family spent five days and three days in the nation’s prominent destinations of Bali and Yogyakarta respectively.
Their visits to several places in Bali and Yogyakarta made headlines in local media. Amid tight security guarding, Obama made interactions with domestic and foreign tourists visiting the same places they visited during their tour in Indonesia.
In Bali Obama’s family visited arts museum, observed cultural and world heritage places, and did an extreme outdoor activity of rafting in a Bali river.
Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, Obama family visited Prambanan Temple and world’s largest Buddhist temple of Borobudur located in nearby province of Central Java.
Obama has strong emotional bond with Indonesia as he spent his childhood in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971, stayed with his mother Stanley Ann Dunham who married to an Indonesian man Lolo Soetoro.
In a book that he wrote entitled The Audacity of Hope, Obama expressed his vivid memory on Indonesia whose beauties have been ‘haunting’ all of his life.
“I want to share with Michelle and my children part of my life, exploring hundreds years old piles temple’s stones in Prambanan, or swimming in Bali’s highland rivers,” Obama wrote in his book, called his wife, the former United States first lady Michelle Obama. Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya praised Obama’s family visit, saying that it was a perfect timing to grab more visitors from the United States, a highly potential market for the nation’s ultimate industry of tourism.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
