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ndonesia is urging the 10-nation ASEAN to assume ownership of an emergent geopolitical and geostrategic concept that straddles the vast area linking the Indian and Pacific oceans, just months ahead of an annual summit where the regional group is expected to table a common position.

At an ASEAN ministerial meeting earlier this month, Indonesian diplomats distributed an eight-page concept paper on a shared Indo-Pacific strategy in the hope that fellow ASEAN member states would support a proposal to use the East Asia Summit (EAS) in November to put the strategy into play.

The Foreign Ministry’s head of policy analysis and development, Siswo Pramono, said there was a need for momentum in discussions among ASEAN member states to ensure the bloc remained a central element of the developing Indo-Pacific concept.

“ASEAN has to assume leadership by providing ideas that will ensure ASEAN centrality in its immediate region and in the wider region as well,” Siswo told participants of a seminar hosted by The Habibie Center in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi unveiled Indonesia’s Indo-Pacific strategy in May, basing it on the principles of being “open, transparent and inclusive, promoting the habit of dialogue, promoting cooperation and friendship, and upholding international law”.

According to the minister, the concept was developed in recognition of the need for ASEAN to respond with a united front to emerging regional issues, thereby preserving ASEAN’s centrality.

But Indonesia’s concept paper was met with mixed responses among ASEAN members and the bloc’s 10 dialogue partners.

Siswo, who is in charge of drafting Indonesia’s take on the concept, said he expects the paper to be fleshed out within the next month or two so that “we can keep up with the development in the region”.

The Indo-Pacific concept gained ground when United States President Donald Trump used the term during his Asian tour in 2017, although the notion dates back to 2002. Other powers have also set their sights on the region, such as Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept, India’s Act East policy and China’s Belt Road Initiative framework.

Siswo said an ASEAN Indo-Pacific concept should be aimed at promoting a new strategic outlook and creating an enabling environment for peace and stability by promoting prosperity through closer economic cooperation.

As one of the existing ASEAN-led mechanisms, the EAS — whose members are economically interdependent — provided “natural inclusivity” for the discussion of the strategy, he said.

Endy Bayuni, a senior editor at The Jakarta Post, said that convincing other ASEAN member states to agree on a shared concept would be a test of Indonesia’s diplomatic pull. Indonesia is the only member of the group that borders both oceans, Endy said, while other countries had no such direct strategic interests.

“Not all countries place as much importance on ASEAN as Indonesia does,” he said.

The Indo-Pacific strategy is seen by observers as a good fit for Indonesia’s ambition to become a “global maritime fulcrum”.

Raja Mohan, director of the Institute of South Asian Studies and a panelist at Tuesday’s event, said the changing geopolitical and power structure of the region had pressured ASEAN to act.

“The debate really is whether ASEAN can sustain its institutional centrality within the geographic area — […] some form of multilateralism in needed, but that alone isn’t enough,” said Mohan, while urging Indonesia to reinforce its strategic partnerships with other countries in the region.