Heavy hitters: Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (center), along with (from left) Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) Indonesian representative Jusuf Wanandi, CSCAP co-chair Carolina Hernandez, Pacific Forum for Strategic and International Studies president Ralph A. Cossa and American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar and former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, share a light moment following CSCAP’s seventh general conference, in Jakarta on Monday. JP/J. Adiguna
New ideas for regional groupings floated by Australia and Japan should add value to ASEAN and be inclusive in their memberships, to avoid hostilities in a region that is increasingly attracting attention from various world powers, says the foreign minister.
Marty Natalegawa said Monday that Indonesia was taking an open-minded approach toward new regional architecture concepts coming from Canberra and Tokyo, but stressed Jakarta would like to learn more about the benefits to Indonesia’s policy regarding the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the longest-lived bloc in the region.
“Those who have ideas have to say what added value they are going to bring ... to the existing processes,” he said after addressing an international seminar on Asian security, organized in Jakarta by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).
Leaders of Australia and Japan recently proposed an Asia Pacific Community and East Asian Community, respectively.
Japan said it would like to bring together key Asian countries into a single community, similar to the European Union, in a move that has drawn a wary response from the United States.
Australia said its Asia Pacific Community would involve Asia-Pacific nations for cooperation on the economy, security, politics and the environment.
Critics have warned ASEAN of the dangers of playing second fiddle as the regional powers, including China and South Korea, begin mulling the idea among themselves.
Marty said Jakarta and ASEAN had anticipated new challenges through the establishment of various forums .
“Indonesia, together with the other ASEAN member countries, have ourselves begun the community building exercise in 2003. So we are ready for any [new] process.”
He was referring to the ASEAN+3 inception in 2003, when Japan, South Korea and China were brought together under one forum with the 10 ASEAN members.
Marty said the new blocs should be inclusive or risk provoking grievances from those excluded from “restrictive and too rigid” definitions of regional concepts.
At the same forum, Australian special envoy Richard A. Woolcott played down the apparent rivalry between Canberra and Tokyo for regional support, saying it “showed the response of the newly elected government [in Tokyo] about the need for change in the region to respond to the shift of politics strategic in the Asia Pacific”.
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