INDONESIAN President Prabowo Subiano appealed for “collaboration, not confrontation” between world powers as he left his first international trip to China for his second to the United States today.

Mr Subiano hailed China as “not just a superpower but a great civilisation” after meeting its President Xi Jinping, who thanked him for making Beijing the first stop on his world tour.

The language echoes the third of Mr Xi’s “global initiatives,” the Global Civilisational Initiative (GCI). The others refer to economic development and security, but the GCI challenges the shaping of all global institutions by European and Anglo-Saxon countries and calls for a new world order that respects other traditions as equal to theirs.

China has invested heavily in Indonesia, including by building its first high-speed railway. While this has improved living standards, environmentalists say its investment in mining, especially for nickel, has contributed to deforestation in the country.