This week, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) welcomed two new presidents, Luong Cuong in Vietnam and Prabowo Subianto in Indonesia.
Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated as the eighth president of Indonesia on October 20. Buoyed by outgoing president Jokowi’s support, Prabowo and his vice president, Jokowi’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, swept into office with 58.6 percent of the votes in February. With a robust social media presence portraying him as a kindly grandpa, Prabowo trounced his competition.
As president, Prabowo now leads ASEAN’s largest economy and one of its most integral members. Shortly after taking office, he assembled the largest-ever cabinet of 109 members across the Indonesian political spectrum to cement power and consolidate alliances throughout the country. Projects like Jokowi’s vision for a new capital in Nusantara will likely take a back seat to Prabowo’s top priorities: his trademark free meal program, house building program, and health care capacity improvement pledge.
More foreign policy-oriented than his predecessor, Prabowo will inherit a delicate balancing act within ASEAN and beyond with Indonesia’s great power partners like China, Russia, and the United States. His commitment to continuing Indonesia’s “free and independent” foreign policy is colored by his “good neighbor” policy, which is largely in line with the foreign policy precedent set by his two predecessors. He has also expressed a strong commitment to boosting Indonesia’s defense capability.
Voters elected Prabowo to office on the promise of continuity with the Jokowi administration, though he will likely forge his own path in Indonesian domestic affairs rather than become Jokowi 2.0. With strong support from a five-party coalition in the Indonesian House of Representatives, he is well-positioned to reshape the country in his image. If reelected in 2029, Prabowo has a decade to complete his vision for Indonesia.
In Vietnam, the National Assembly unanimously appointed Luong Cuong president on October 21. Cuong replaces party chief and former acting president To Lam, finally filling each seat in the top “four pillars” of the Vietnamese government. His appointment brings stability after significant turmoil stemming from the ongoing dot lo anticorruption campaign that ousted both Vo Van Thuong and Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
To Lam ceding presidential power to Luong Cuong hints at a power-sharing compromise between the state security and military factions of the party. All of Vietnam’s top four positions will be selected by the National Assembly in 2026 as part of the regular five-year reshuffle in the upper echelons of the Vietnamese government.
