Some years before that, 11 American sailors and airmen were saved and sheltered for five years by local Dayak tribespeople after their planes were shot and crashed into what is now North Kalimantan.

“When a US Embassy team visited the area in March to commemorate the rescue, one of the original Dayak rescuers — now 82 — told them it was the Dayak people’s respect for American values of fairness, integrity and tolerance that motivated this unlikely partnership,” Donovan said in his speech.

There were many more in the “amazing collection of individuals” that the envoy said had worked hard throughout the 70 years of formal ties to make the partners’ shared futures better based on shared values.

This year, Jakarta and Washington celebrate decades of what one US Embassy spokesperson in Jakarta described as a “broad and deep” relationship, despite concerns over a perceived lack of access at the highest levels.

Some officials and experts have privately lamented Indonesia’s “weak” link to the White House under US President Donald Trump, and that cooperation had been thinning as a result of it.

For one, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has yet to make a state visit to Washington to meet with Trump.

Trump has also reportedly allocated most of his country’s diplomatic resources to take on China, which his administration has singled out for interventionism in Southeast Asia and the wider region.

The Trump administration has only recently named a possible nomination for US ambassador to ASEAN, despite repeated calls from ASEAN countries since 2016. Ambassador-nominate John Linder must still be confirmed by the US Senate.

Additionally, Indonesia has had to experience the fallout from what observers called the dark age of American diplomacy, beginning with the appointment of Rex Tillerson, “the worst secretary of state in modern memory” according to the New York Times.

“I don’t think the bilateral relationship has suffered as a whole although nor has it progressed as much as many in both capitals would like it to,” said Adam Schwarz, an expert on Southeast Asia and Indonesia-US relations at Asia Group Advisors.

“The all-hands-on-deck mentality in Washington in terms of managing the China relationship is one culprit, as is the very long time it has taken to nominate and confirm senior officials in the State Department’s East Asia and Pacific bureau.”

However, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to recommit the US to supporting the development of Southeast Asian nations in an upcoming visit to the region later this month, AFP quoted one US official as saying.

US and Indonesian officials based in Jakarta were more optimistic in their outlook.

“We have had a steady flow of senior US officials visit Indonesia this year […] Our ties, however, include much more than what our governments do together,” said Rakesh Surampudi, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Jakarta.

“It’s about our private sectors, it’s about NGOs, and more than anything else it’s about our people making differences together,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Zelda Kartika, the Foreign Ministry’s director for America (I) affairs overseeing North and Central America, while acknowledging that engagement between the partners had been somewhat “low-key”, said the bigger focus on people-to-people contacts was essential considering the misperceptions that people from both sides still tended to have of each other.

“This is in line with the Indonesian government’s nation-building vision,” she told the Post recently. (agn/tjs)

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