TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Imagining Prabowo’s ASEAN and Indo-Pacific strategy
Given ASEAN's history, Indonesia is expected to take the lead, and even open more innovative ways to achieve reforms.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) greets visiting Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto at Istana Negara Palace in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 7. Prabowo toured five ASEAN countries from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7. (Instagram/@@anwaribrahim_my)
P
resident-elect Prabowo Subianto’s activity in visiting and meeting with foreign leaders from west to east and north to south months before his official inauguration in October shows that diplomacy will take on greater importance for Indonesia in the next five years.
Prabowo’s position as defense minister under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has given him adequate resources, with high-networked and past-exposure relationships with some relevant major powers and key partnering countries.
With his lengthening list of visited countries, experts are trying to predict where Indonesia's foreign policy will move under Prabowo’s administration. As “free and active” foreign policy principles will continue to form the foundation of Indonesia’s global affairs, his expected “bold and assertive” international engagements will, interestingly, put more flavor into the country’s future dynamism.
Prabowo might be the key foreign policy decision-maker himself. However, he needs a well-articulated and well-versed foreign minister supporting him. This is essential, as the country will put more diplomatic weight on its global agenda. Rumors are circulating around town about who will take the role as his “chief of diplomacy”.
The region is moving so fast, with more countries having leadership changes and not a few currently seeking to determine their position on the global stage. With the United States for instance, which will have an instrumental election at the end of this year, the forthcoming foreign minister should be able to actualize and complement Prabowo’s vision of Indonesia’s foreign policy.
In the context of Indonesia’s future diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry should deploy comprehensive resources and put proportional attention on matters from economics to politics, from high security to cultural diplomacy.
Indonesia is too big to take on just one of these, although identifying priority areas is a must.
