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The long-awaited G20 chair
Leading the prestigious group is both an honor and a challenge, but hopefully, Indonesia’s presidency will generate concrete results not only for the country but also for other developing nations.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (Courtesy of Presidential Office /-)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is scheduled to attend the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Rome on Oct. 30-31. At the end of the event, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will hand over the rotary presidency of the world’s 20 largest economies club to President Jokowi. As stated by Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, the President will raise three main agendas in his acceptance speech on Sunday: the global economy and health, climate change and the environment, and sustainable development.
Indonesia has chosen Recover Together, Recover Stronger as the theme of its first-time leadership. According to the Foreign Ministry’s official website, it reflects the spirit of collective recovery of the world and is visualized in the logo of the G20 Indonesia presidency.
In 2022, the President’s foreign affairs agenda will be dominated by G20-related issues, as the country will be in charge of coordinating the group’s activities for the whole year. In October next year, Indonesia will host the G20 summit in Bali.
The elite group comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, whose combined economy accounts for 90 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Leading the prestigious group is both an honor and a challenge, but hopefully, Indonesia’s presidency will generate concrete results not only for the country but also for other developing nations.
As the world is still grappling with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agenda on global health will likely top the priority of Indonesia’s presidency. The supply of COVID-19 vaccines remains under the control of rich countries, while poorer nations rely mostly on the generosity of wealthy nations. Equal access to vaccines will ensure a speedy recovery of the world’s economy.
From Rome, the President will fly to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). In Glasgow, the President is expected to reiterate Indonesia’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 or earlier. The government is drafting a carbon emission exchange mechanism amid public skepticism of the country’s commitment to fighting climate change.
Prior to the Rome and Glasgow meetings, the President attended the virtual ASEAN summit and met with its dialogue partners such as the US, China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. On Tuesday, Jokowi openly demonstrated his strong leadership as the president of ASEAN’s largest member for the first time by telling Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing not to play with fire with the regional grouping. ASEAN did not invite Hlaing to the summit.
The three successive summits seem to indicate a shift in Jokowi’s views of international diplomacy. For seven years since he assumed power in October 2014, Jokowi has never personally attended the annual UN General Assembly. He has fully entrusted his foreign minister to deal with international affairs and prefers to focus on domestic issues.
For Indonesia, chairing the G20 is not just a matter of prestige, but a way to benefit from the group to boost its economy, win the fight against COVID-19 and help transform Earth into a better place to live.
