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Indonesia seeks IORA support in Indo-Pacific agenda
Success will depend on IORA's engagement with other regional organizations.
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Vice President Jusuf Kalla delivers his opening speech at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Second Blue Economy Ministerial Conference (BEC II) in Jakarta on May 8. (Antara/Widodo S Jusuf)
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ndonesia is working on involving the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and other regional organizations in the development of an “open, transparent and inclusive Indo-Pacific”, which will be discussed at an international forum hosted by Indonesia next year.
However, challenges still remain on how best to engage with the organization, as the current discourse on the Indo-Pacific has put a strong emphasis on political-security matters.
The Foreign Ministry’s director for Asia-Pacific and African intra-regional cooperation, Andre Omer Siregar, said that Indonesia, as part of the current troika of IORA leaders, wanted to continue to facilitate dialogue among the organization's member states.
"But now as we also have an Indo-Pacific agenda, we are engaging IORA and ASEAN on how we can maintain stability and peaceful cooperation, not only in the Indian Ocean but also in the Pacific Ocean,” he said during an IORA high-level panel held in Bali, on Friday.
The Indo-Pacific concept is an evolving strategic concept for a vast regional architecture that underpins the area straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans, interpretations of which observers say vary depending on the geopolitical interests of countries in the region. Indonesia and its ASEAN counterparts are currently developing their own version of the concept, which is to be concluded by next year.
On various occasions, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has said that she believes in “harnessing the building blocks” that underpin the Indo-Pacific concept by involving various regional organizations, including IORA.
Andre said Indonesia's plan to host the Indo-Pacific Maritime Dialogue next year provided a good opportunity for IORA to partner up with ASEAN and also engage the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the region's premier economic platform.
