“The polygamous man can teach your government how to deal with the United States and China. Hopefully, you can pass the tight rope safely, or else you will end up in their bellies,” said the veteran diplomat.

It was just a joke, but Indonesia, as well as many other countries in the world, should not belittle the advice. In real life, they have to deal with China and the US and they cannot disregard either of them. In Indonesia’s case, it will never form a military alliance with either country, but it also realizes it is more difficult now to maintain its “free and active” foreign policy amid mounting pressure from the two giants.

Indonesia, like many other ASEAN members, knows doing business with the world’s second-largest economy China is more profitable than with the US, but at the same time, feels more comfortable with the presence of the US in the Indo-Pacific region. For some, China is a pleasant and trustworthy neighbor, but some others deem China as scary.

Washington is ready to provide ASEAN countries security insurance but certainly there is no such thing as a free lunch. But today the US is not so mighty as it was two decades ago, and China may soon replace the US as the world’s strongest country, both economically and militarily. ASEAN members need more alliances to counterbalance China without provoking its anger.

Indonesia and the US armed forces are now conducting perhaps the largest joint military exercise, taking place in Sumatra and Kalimantan with the attendance of military personnel from Singapore, Japan and Australia and a number of other countries as observers.

Last year, China reportedly protested the Garuda Shield Indonesia-US war exercise, saying it was disturbing the regional security stability. This time around, there is no objection from China, apparently because it is still preoccupied with the Taiwan issue.