On 19 February, 2026, President Prabowo Subianto signed the “Reciprocal Trade Agreement” (the Agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Indonesia on Reciprocal Trade, or ART) with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. The day before, a series of commercial transaction agreements were signed, which include business-to-business agreements as well as that which involves the Government of Indonesia as party to the agreement, such as the Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding among Freeport McMoRan (FCX), PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

The suite of commercial MoUs signed on 18 February, 2026, particularly those involving the Indonesian government, formally stands apart from the Indonesia–US ART. However, both the ART and the MoUs contain provisions that endanger Indonesia's political and economic sovereignty and potentially threaten the lives of its people, as well as its archipelagic lands and waters.

The ART document with provisions that manifestly fall beyond tariff matters and impinge on Indonesia’s economic and political sovereignty has now become legally problematic, since its legal footing in the US was declared inconstitutional and officially annuled by the Supreme Court of the United States on 20 February, 2026, barely two days after President Prabowo signed it.  
 
From Indonesia's perspective, the obligatory provisions in the Indonesia–US ART should therefore not be considered legally binding, along with their economic and legal consequences. This includes financial flows to the United States generated from Indonesia’s export activities since the issuance of Executive Order No. 14257 by President Trump on 2 April, 2025 , as well as the U.S.–Indonesia Joint Statement on the Reciprocal Trade Agreement issued on 16 July, 2025. 

Among the series of inter-business MoUs signed on 18 February, 2026, one of the eleven commercial agreements most clearly detrimental to the people and ecosystems of the Indonesian archipelago is the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding among Freeport McMoRan, PT Freeport Indonesia, and the Government of Indonesia concerning the continuation of Freeport's mining operations in the shared living space of Papua.

Criticism of the Indonesia-US Reciprocal Tariff Agreement: Full Doc [PDF]