Beijing stands ready to work with Jakarta to address challenges and promote common development, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto over the weekend. In talks in Jakarta on Sunday, the second day of his trip to Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, Li said China was willing to “join Indonesia to address risks and challenges, and consolidate cooperation in … politics, economy, people-to-people and cultural exchange, maritime affairs and security”, state news agency Xinhua reported. The previous evening, the premier told business leaders that China would “unwaveringly expand opening up” and foster a more favourable environment for foreign investment. He called for deeper engagement between Chinese and Indonesian businesses, urging them to “strengthen industrial integration, uphold free trade, and deliver more outcomes across various sectors”, the Chinese foreign ministry quoted him as saying. At the event attended by Prabowo and around 200 business representatives from both countries, Li warned of “rising global turbulence, with growing unilateralism, protectionism, and acts of bullying”. “We must … seek common ground while shelving differences, live in peace with one another, resolve disputes through dialogue, and pursue win-win cooperation to achieve shared development and prosperity,” he said. Li will head to Malaysia on Monday for a joint meeting of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Kuala Lumpur. The visit comes just weeks after President Xi Jinping’s trip to Malaysia, where he urged Asean members to unite in opposing “excessive” tariffs. China is trying to strengthen ties with Asean members as it grapples with a tariff war with the United States. As China’s largest trading partner, Asean holds significant strategic value for Beijing in building international support to oppose US President Donald Trump’s trade policies. Southeast Asian countries were also among the hardest hit by the tariffs Trump announced in April. Members of the bloc face levies of up to 49 per cent if they do not succeed in renegotiating with the US president before July. At the Saturday event, Li praised the growing trade and investment ties between China and Indonesia for “delivering real benefits to businesses and people in both countries and injecting greater certainty into the global economy”. He added that despite rising external challenges, China’s economy had maintained “relatively fast growth” and held vast potential in areas such as domestic demand expansion, technological advancement and industrial upgrading, which offered investment and cooperation opportunities for other countries. Prabowo said Indonesia was ready to deepen cooperation with China in trade, industry, green development, and science and education, while strengthening people-to-people exchanges to achieve greater mutual benefit. He also praised “China’s important role in international affairs”, adding that Indonesia was willing to work with Beijing to safeguard peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and to uphold the shared interests of developing countries.