TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Prabowo may inspire Indonesia's bold diplomacy
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Defense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto speaks on June 1, 2024, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. (Reuters/Edgar Su)
D
efense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto’s recent trips abroad were a strong indication that Jakarta will likely take a bolder approach to Indonesia’s free and active foreign policy following a decade of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, analysts have said.
They have also predicted that Prabowo will be more active and pragmatic in diplomacy in pursuing Indonesia’s interests abroad.
In just the five months since the Feb. 14 presidential election, Prabowo has conducted at least a dozen foreign visits across the globe, meeting with various heads of state in Asia, the Middle East and most recently Europe.
His overseas trips, which have piqued widespread interest as Indonesia remains in the fragile balancing act of non-alignment, saw the incoming president assert his eagerness to deepen economic, security and cultural ties with the countries he visited, all of which were notably varied in their geopolitical alliances.
Prabowo’s latest string of foreign visits, which saw him cozying up to France, Serbia and Turkey, was concluded with a visit to Russia where he met with President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Andrey Belousov. In the July 30 visit to Russia, Prabowo reasserted his eagerness to deepen Jakarta’s friendship with Moscow, an itinerary choice widely considered a signal to the world that his leadership will not shy away from making alliances potentially seen as unpopular to benefit Indonesia.
Read also: Prabowo seeks stronger ties with Putin
“Politically speaking, it is a bit too early to predict his alignment. It seems, however, that he wants to visit as many countries with various alignments as possible,” said international relations expert Ahmad Rizky M. Umar from the University of Queensland. “It’s interesting because the visits have been very pragmatic in nature.”
