While Anies acknowledged that the business-oriented foreign policy stance over the past decade had improved the economy, this came at the cost of a decline in its domestic institutions. He added that a general lack of global commitment had played a part in the country’s slipping rankings in key democracy, freedom and corruption indexes.

The former Jakarta governor, who is running on an opposition platform with National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, shared his foreign policy vision at the CSIS discussion by describing a world torn by multilayered challenges, including tensions in the Indo-Pacific, the global climate crisis and a lackluster international order.

Indonesia’s diplomatic focus had been floundering against this backdrop so far, he said, as it centered too much on economic deals rather than building the country’s a long-term global standing based on values.

“The international interests we’ve been focusing on so far have been very narrow," Anies said.

"Even when we went to Ukraine, we went there only to secure our food supply chain. The matter [in Ukraine] is much bigger than a mere food supply chain," he added, in an apparent jab at President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

In late June 2022, Jokowi embarked on what was touted as a peace mission to meet with his counterparts in Kyiv and Moscow during the initial peak of Russia-Ukraine war, when a Russian blockade prevented the passage of grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.