KBRN, Jakarta: A moment of surprise at the United Nations General Assembly drew global attention when the microphone of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was abruptly cut mid-speech. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since clarified that the incident was not technical, but procedural, triggered by a strict five-minute time limit imposed on all speakers.

President Prabowo was addressing a high-level UN meeting on the Palestine issue and the two-state solution at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday. His microphone went silent immediately after he declared, “We are willing to provide peacekeeping troops”.

“There is a procedural rule that each country is allotted five minutes. If the speech exceeds that duration, the microphone is automatically turned off,” explained Hartyo Harkomoyo, Director of Information and Media at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to media inquiries on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, as quoted by antaranews.com.

He emphasized that each UN session operates under its own set of regulations, including strict time allocations for member states to present their views. Prabowo’s speech, which exceeded the limit, was therefore cut from the live broadcast being watched around the world.

Despite the cutoff, Hartyo assured that the President’s voice remained audible to delegates in the General Assembly Hall. “Even without the microphone, President Prabowo’s remarks were clearly heard by those present,” he said.

The incident was not isolated. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke earlier in the same session, also experienced a microphone shutdown. According to Turkey’s Directorate of Communications, the cutoff occurred after Erdogan exceeded the time limit, partly due to applause interruptions during his speech.

The summit, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, brought together 33 leaders and representatives from countries and regional organizations, including the European Union and the Arab League, to discuss pathways toward resolving the Palestinian conflict and implementing a viable two-state solution. ***