NEW YORK: Indonesia has offered to send at least 20,000 troops as peacekeepers to Gaza to safeguard any future peace deal and is “heartened” by countries around the world that have recognised Palestinian statehood in recent days, said President Prabowo Subianto.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (Sep 23), Prabowo said that the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country wanted a peace that shows that “might cannot make right.”
“We believe in the UN. We will continue to serve where peace needs guardians – not with just words, but with boots on the ground,” he said.
“If and when the UN Security Council and this great Assembly decide, Indonesia is prepared to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza,” he said, adding that Indonesia remains “one of the largest contributors” to the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces.
As of 2024, Indonesia provides 2,715 uniformed personnel to the UN peacekeeping forces, making it the sixth-largest contributor currently, according to the international body.
Prabowo also said Indonesia is willing to send peacekeepers elsewhere, including to Ukraine, Sudan or Libya.
“We are greatly heartened by the events of the last few days, where significant leading countries of the world have chosen to side with history,” he added, referring to the wave of recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal, which have traditionally allied with Israel, recognised a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining more than 140 other countries that have already backed the aspiration of Palestinians to forge an independent homeland from the occupied territories.
Indonesia recognised the Palestinian state in 1988.
