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Collaboration against global challenges: Indonesia’s perspective
Indonesia maintains its engagement with the Taliban to convey the expectations of the international community.
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Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (second right) speaks with top Taliban representative Amir Khan Muttaqi (second left) on the margins of an emergency meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Dec. 19, 2021. (Courtesy of Foreign Ministry/-)
The year 2021 was a very challenging one for all of us. The world has not been able to fully defeat COVID-19. The vaccination gap between countries remains the biggest obstacle to the world recovering from this pandemic. At least 92 member states missed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target to vaccinate 40 percent of their population by the end of 2021. There were 3.5 million recorded deaths in 2021 compared with 1.8 million in 2020. The emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant is a sobering reminder that no one is safe until everyone is.
The prolonged pandemic has also complicated our recovery efforts. The global economy is already showing signs of life, but the pace of recovery between countries has been uneven. Cross-border travel has gradually resumed, but it is nowhere near the pre-pandemic level.
This pandemic, however, is hardly the only global challenge that demands our response. The list is exhaustive, from protracted conflicts to world hunger, from the refugee crisis to climate change and from nuclear weapons to terrorism.
No country, no matter how powerful or wealthy, can address these challenges by itself. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo urged all countries to work together in finding a solution to global challenges.
Throughout 2021, Indonesia’s diplomacy was geared toward galvanizing international cooperation against common challenges. This was not an easy task. The international environment during this pandemic has been hardly conducive for collaboration, especially with great power rivalries, zero-sum mentalities, narrow nationalism and strategic distrust between countries.
Indonesia’s diplomatic machinery, however, has been relentless. We have built bridges between countries and always stand ready to work with any nation. This has enabled us to demonstrate leadership in a number of strategic causes.
First, ensuring fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Since the early days of the pandemic, Indonesia has consistently called for global solidarity to achieve this goal. President Jokowi himself has been advocating this issue in various bilateral, regional and multilateral forums.
