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Indonesia urges G20 to adopt win-win mindset
Indonesia asserted its view about the relevance of free and fair trade amid a volatile global economy, with its top diplomat underscoring the importance of global leadership in maintaining international stability at the Group of 20 ministerial forum in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Saturday
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span>Indonesia asserted its view about the relevance of free and fair trade amid a volatile global economy, with its top diplomat underscoring the importance of global leadership in maintaining international stability at the Group of 20 ministerial forum in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Saturday.
“Global trade must put forward a win-win approach and not [adopt] a zero-sum [game],” Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi was quoted as saying in a ministry press statement on Sunday, at a meeting of foreign ministers from the world’s 20 biggest economies.
Currently, the G20 represents 85 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), 75 percent of global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population, comprising 19 countries — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom — as well as the European Union.
Indonesia, Retno said, has consistently reiterated its commitment to promoting free and fair trade, having pushed for the conclusion of several regional free trade agreements and inking deals of its own with a number of partner countries.
The country is, for instance, seeking to ratify its Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Australia and is looking forward to signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) along with the rest of ASEAN and its six dialogue partners.
She went on to say that the G20 forum should be a platform for global leadership in the hope of pushing the values of multilateralism that could bolster world peace, stability and prosperity.
Countries from around the globe have lamented the rise of populism and nationalist sentiment, which has driven some like the US to look inwards and shun the global multilateral order.
And in spite of the high hopes that the likes of Indonesia conveyed during the G20 forum, China’s top diplomat used the opportunity on Saturday to make a controversial statement on the US, blaming Washington as “the world’s biggest source of instability” and accusing it of making “its politicians go around the world baselessly smearing China”, Reuters reports.
The world’s two largest economies are going through a rough patch in their evolving relationship, worsened by an ongoing trade war and arguments over human rights, partly from the violence in Hong Kong and US support for Taiwan.
“The United States is broadly engaged in unilateralism and protectionism and is damaging multilateralism and the multilateral trading system. It has already become the world’s biggest destabilizing factor,” Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi was quoted as saying during a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok on the sidelines of the forum. The US had, for political purposes, used the state apparatus to suppress legitimate Chinese businesses and has groundlessly laid charges against them — an act of bullying, he said.
Wang Yi said that China’s development and growth was an inevitable trend of history that no one could stop. “There is no way out for the zero-sum games of the United States. Only win-win cooperation between China and the United States is the right path,” he said.
Amid the seemingly endless feud between the two major powers, Indonesia has tried to maintain its focus on strengthening ties with other G20 member states.
Retno separately met with counterparts from Australia, New Zealand and Japan on the margins of the G20 event.
In a meeting with Japanese top diplomat Motegi Toshimitsu on Friday, Retno underlined the importance of building a partnership to sell Indonesia’s palm oil products and derivatives in Japan, as well as discussing potential collaboration on human resources, such as helping Indonesian skilled workers enter the Japanese labor market.
Speaking on future collaboration, Toshimitsu was quoted by a Japanese Embassy press release as saying that the country was determined to improve economic ties with Indonesia, especially in infrastructure and human capital development — two high-priority goals for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s second term, besides maintaining and improving maritime cooperation.
The minister said Japan would strengthen maritime cooperation with Indonesia through development assistance for Indonesia’s outermost islands, specifically through a technical cooperation initiative with Indonesia’s Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla).
The two sides also agreed on the repatriation of Japanese soldiers’ remains from World War II.
Meanwhile, regional issues such as the South China Sea dispute were also highlighted in the meeting, with both sides reaffirming their shared perspective of maintaining stability. Toshimitsu also reiterated support for the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
The ministerial forum on Saturday concluded Japan’s presidency of the G20 in 2019. It will be handed over to Saudi Arabia in 2020, Italy in 2021, India in 2022 and Indonesia in 2023. (tjs)
