The Indonesian President plans to meet Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his US visit. It is expected that the main topic of the meeting will be the discussion of nickel production and supplies to the manufacturer.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo plans to meet with Elon Musk during his upcoming visit to the United States, Investment and Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said on Monday. The country is aiming to accelerate the development of its nickel industry for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, so this should be the main topic of the upcoming conversation.

Tesla representatives are currently in Indonesia and are scheduled to visit the Morawali nickel production center on the island of Sulawesi, Luhut said. “They will visit Morowali [...] They are very pleased with the data they have received so far,” he said at a media briefing.

Recently, a delegation from Indonesia met with Elon Musk at Giga Texas, where they discussed the progress in the development of Indonesia's nickel industry. Now the President of Indonesia himself, commonly known as Jokowi, is scheduled to travel to the U.S. this week for the Southeast Asian Leaders' Summit in Washington. “We are negotiating where the meeting [with Musk] will be,” Luhut said.

Indonesia aims to build a complete domestic nickel supply chain for battery production. The country has already struck multi-billion dollar deals with South Korean and Chinese companies to take advantage of its nickel resources, and has been trying to woo Tesla for some time now.

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