On the evening of 29 July 2024, the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia held a reception in Jakarta to celebrate the 97th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Mr. Zhou Kan, Chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia and diplomats of the Chinese Embassy and Chinese Mission to ASEAN attended the reception. Around 800 guests were present, including Lt.General Jonnie Mahroza, Rector of National Defense University, Vice Admiral Irvansyah, Commander of Indonesian Coast Guards, Lt.Gen. Dr. Anton Nugroho, Special Advisor to Chief of Staff of Indonesian Army, Admiral (Retired) Dr. Marsetio, Former Chief of Staff of Indonesian Navy, political and military officials, friends from various sectors, diplomats of other countries, and representatives of overseas Chinese communities and Chinese institutions in Indonesia.

Sen. Col. Xu Sheng, Defense Attaché of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, delivered remarks at the reception. He pointed out that the CPLA is a people's armed forces with a glorious history. Over the past 97 years, this heroic force has made indelible contributions to the independence of the Chinese nation and the liberation of the Chinese people, to national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and to the world peace and human progress. In the new Journey of the new era, the CPLA comprehensively implement Xi Jinping's thinking on strengthening the military, focus on its centenary goal, give meaning to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, fulfil the international duty of a major power’s military and provide strategic support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and promoting world peace and development.

Sen. Col. Xu Sheng emphasized that in recent years, under the strategic guidance of our two Presidents, the relations between the two countries and the two militaries have continued to develop in depth. President Xi Jinping made the first overseas visit to Indonesia after the 20th CPC National Congress. President Jokowi visited China three times. President-elect Prabowo made his first visit to China soon after election. Our two sides make full use of High-level Dialogue and Cooperation Mechanism to promote practical cooperation in all areas and have the 2+2 ministerial dialogue mechanism in place now. At the same time, our two militaries have maintained close high-level exchanges and interactions and show a good momentum in joint exercises, ship visits, personnel training and multilateral cooperation. According to the plan, within the next two months, TNI Navy training ship Bima Suci and PLA training ship PO Lang will conduct goodwill visit to Shanghai and Jakart respectively. These exchanges and cooperation will not only bring benefits to our two peoples, but also contribute more positive energy to regional stability and development !

Lieutenant General Jonnie expressed his best wishes for the 97th Anniversary of the CPLA, emphasizing that current cooperation potentials between Indonesia and China is huge and the prospects are even broader, which provides a good opportunity for the further development of the relations between the two militaries. In recent years, the CPLA has made remarkable achievements. Indonesia is willing to work with China to continuously deepen exchanges and interactions in various fields of military security such as joint exercises, education and training, and defense scientific research, continuously enhance mutual trust, deepen cooperation, and continue to promote new and greater development of relations between two countries and the two militaries.

A photo exhibition themed “Safeguarding Peace and Sharing a Common Destiny: the Chinese Military Safeguards World Peace” was held at the reception. The guests expressed warm congratulations on the 97th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, spoke highly of China’s brilliant achievements of national defense and military modernization in the new era, and admire China's pursuit of an independent and peaceful foreign policy, a defensive national defense policy, and its active roel in maintenance of international and regional peace and stability. They also offered their best wishes for the sound and stable development of the relations between China and the Indonesia and the two militaries.