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East Asia to hear about Indo-Pacific idea
Economic talks: Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi (center) chats with Indonesian committee chair of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) Mari Elka Pangestu (left), chair of the PECC standing committee Donald Campbell (second left), senior adviser to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry and vice chair of VNCPEC Nguyen Nguyet Nga (second right) and board member of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and standing committee member of PECC Jusuf Wanandi on the sidelines of the first CSIS Global Dialogue and the 25th PECC General Meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday
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conomic talks: Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi (center) chats with Indonesian committee chair of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) Mari Elka Pangestu (left), chair of the PECC standing committee Donald Campbell (second left), senior adviser to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry and vice chair of VNCPEC Nguyen Nguyet Nga (second right) and board member of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and standing committee member of PECC Jusuf Wanandi on the sidelines of the first CSIS Global Dialogue and the 25th PECC General Meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday. (Antara/aww)
Indonesia, having received positive responses from its ASEAN dialogue partners, wants to discuss its Indo-Pacific concept, which emphasizes ASEAN unity and centrality, during the upcoming East Asian Summit.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi raised that goal during her remarks on the second day of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Global Dialogue, which was also the 25th Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) General Meeting, to an audience that included ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi and Jusuf Wanandi, CSIS board member and PECC standing committee member, in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Retno said that the strategic environment in the Indian Ocean had been changing fast and, hence, was creating challenges in the form of growing rivalries, competition over maritime-based resources and increasing threats to maritime security.
“Being on the axis between the Indian and Pacific oceans, ASEAN will feel the impact of those challenges,” she said. “Therefore, if ASEAN does not anticipate it, the damaging impact of those challenges may disrupt ASEAN’s achievements and even threaten ASEAN’s environment of peace, stability and prosperity.”
She said ASEAN needed to respond to the emerging issues in the region in “a prompt manner” and with a united voice to show the bloc’s centrality. Currently, she explained, coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean had only the Indian Ocean Rim Association as a vehicle of cooperation.
“On top of investing on the Indian Ocean, there is also a need to interlink the new Indian Ocean investments with our mature investments in the Asia-Pacific region,” she added. Retno said that to respond to the issue Indonesia had begun to intensively introduce its own concept of Indo-Pacific cooperation, which was based on the following principles: being “open, transparent and inclusive, promoting the habit of dialogue, promoting cooperation and friendship and upholding international law”.
The concept has been presented to ASEAN member states three times and discussed with ASEAN’s dialogue partners.
“Thank God, they responded positively to this concept,” Retno said. “They are ready to support ASEAN’s centrality in developing the concept.”
She said to develop the concept, Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has proposed three steps: First, ASEAN must be the engine for creating and enabling an environment that respects international laws and values, promotes dialogue and peaceful settlement of disputes and avoids the use of force; second, ASEAN must address security challenges, including radicalism and terrorism, the drug trade, human trafficking and piracy; finally, ASEAN must create new economic growth centers, especially in the Indian and South Pacific oceans, by maintaining an open and fair economic system.
“ASEAN’s support in developing a framework for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is a must,” she said. “I believe that the East Asia Summit — as mentioned by President Jokowi — is the right follow-up to discuss Indo-Pacific cooperation.”
Retno added that Indonesia hoped the Indo-Pacific partnership would be the main agenda item at the East Asia Summit, the 13th ever held, which is to take place in Singapore in November.
Tuesday was the last day of the CSIS-organized international dialogue, held with the theme “Global Disorder: The Need for New Regional Architecture and Business Model”.
