JAKARTA, May 24 (UPI) -- Indonesia's president left for the United States Tuesday on his first trip to Washington since taking the helm of the world's largest Muslim nation in October.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to meet President Bush and other officials during a two-day visit.
In addition to trade and tsunami relief operations, Yudhoyono is certain to push for a normalization of military relations, which have been frozen for 13 years.
Indonesia has been criticized for human rights abuses and the excesses of its armed forces, particularly during Timor-Leste's independence struggle in 1999.
Ties between the United States and Indonesia further chilled in 2002 after the Indonesian army allegedly blocked U.S. investigations into the killing of two American schoolteachers in Papua province.
But in February, the United States decided to resume training the Indonesian armed forces, a month after easing an embargo on the supply of C-130 spare parts to help tsunami relief efforts.
Yudhoyono and Bush are expected to discuss counter-terrorism efforts. Indonesia, which has suffered a series of bombings, is Washington's key ally in Southeast Asia in combating terrorism.
Indonesia's progress in tackling al-Qaida-linked extremists and the successful transition to democracy have been welcomed by Washington.
