Indonesia wants to maintain neutrality in security issues as changing dynamics of global power make Indonesia more strategically important, says Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.
Purnomo was speaking at a two-day seminar on geopolitical and security challenges, organized at an event marking the first-year anniversary of the Indonesia Defense University (Unhan), which is run by the Defense Ministry.
The minister was citing statements from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which also emphasized that Indonesia wanted zero enemies and dozens of friends. Purnomo said Indonesia was open to cooperating on defense with any country interested in the archipelago.
“That’s what we’ve been doing and we can prove it. Our weaponry is not from one single country, instead, we have diversified. We’re developing cooperation with several countries,” Purnomo said Thursday.
For example, Purnomo said, the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) had cooperated with Australia and China, as well as neighboring
Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Singapore.
“I have to highlight, however, the cooperation must be equal and balanced. That is important because we are a sovereign country.”
“We want to gather views about what position the country will be in 2025. This year’s topic is economics and resources and energy,” Purnomo said.
He said the seminar, ending Thursday, concluded that to tackle future challenges, which included potential conflicts emerging from food, water and energy crises, countries should establish effective partnerships and boost innovations in science and technology.
Speaking at the seminar’s Thursday session, Zhongqi Pan, a professor in international relations at China’s Fudan University, said that global power would be multipolar by 2025, with the emergence of new regional powers such as China, Japan and India.
He said the relations between the three countries and the US, and among themselves were changing, and the world’s center of gravity was moving from the West to the East, with Asia attracting more attention.
Roger Darby, from Cranfield University’s Center for Defense Management and Leadership, said he believed that global powers would be centered on the US and China.
He said the 10 members of ASEAN were divided into three groups in terms of their relations with the US and China.
First, he said, there were nations engaging with China but “still placing greater emphasis on long-term strategic relations with the US”, namely the Philippines and Singapore, and those whose security strategies were dominated by their proximity to China, namely Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Third, he said, were countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, which were negotiating both.
