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Indonesia offers to host new Indo-Pacific forum
For the past few years, Indonesia has pushed for ASEAN to have its own Indo-Pacific concept, an elusive concept for a regional order that underpins the area straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans.
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Illustration of diplomacy and international relations. (Shutterstock/Andrii Yalanskyi)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is expected to speak about the adoption of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and the next step forward at the East Asia Summit (EAS), part of a series of ASEAN summit meetings to be held in Thailand this weekend.
Speaking to reporters before leaving for Bangkok to attend preparatory meetings, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN, Jose Tavares, said that the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific would be at the top of a list of potential topics that Jokowi would bring up at the summit.
In particular, Jokowi is to propose Indonesia host an ASEAN Indo-Pacific Infrastructure and Connectivity Forum, a follow-up to the ASEAN outlook document that he debuted at the same forum of 18 countries last year, Jose said.
“This is the time for the President to convey that the Indo-Pacific Outlook has been completed and we can invite cooperation from ASEAN partner countries in the region. The foreign minister has also submitted an idea to hold the ASEAN Indo Pacific Infrastructure and Connectivity Forum in 2020,” he said at a weekly press briefing.
At her foreign policy address on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said ASEAN would remain the cornerstone of Indonesia’s foreign policy and pledged that Indonesia would host the connectivity forum next year.
For the past few years, Indonesia has pushed for ASEAN to have its own Indo-Pacific concept, an elusive concept for a regional order that underpins the area straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans. The term is often associated with United States President Donald Trump’s vision of the Indo-Pacific, which observers noted was intended to hedge against Chinese economic expansion done through the multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Leaders from the region adopted the document during the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok on June 22, setting it as a guide for member states to engage with their external partners, including the two rivaling superpowers.
