U.S. officials have since apologized on two occasions.
Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo was denied entry to U.S. last weekend and Indonesian leaders are not happy about it.
Nurmantyo was invited by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford JR., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and also the country’s highest-ranking military officer. They were scheduled to attend a conference on countering violent extremism on Monday in Washington.
The Associated Press reported that the airline which was scheduled to leave Indonesia on Saturday with Nurmantyo, his wife, and four officials. They were informed before departure that the U.S. Customs will not allow them to enter the country.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta released the statement that U.S. Ambassador Joseph Donovan had spoken with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and apologized to him for the inconvenience caused by the situation and would allow Nurmantyo to travel to the U.S.
Indonesia was one of the 43 participating nations in 2016’s Chiefs of Defense Conference on Countering Violent Extremism. Dunford hosted the conference last year and had said at the time that he hoped the conference would allow the participating nations to develop a network of cooperation to better understand and defend against violent extremism.
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