The ambassadorial post in Washington DC has been vacant for almost three years now since the previous ambassador Rosan Roeslani was recalled in November 2023.

Even during the best of times, the position of ambassador to Washington is a crucial one, simply due to the fact that the US is a major superpower that has great leverage in world affairs. Not to mention that this superpower nation is also a major trading partner with Indonesia.

Yet, despite the status of the US, Indonesia does not seem to take the country seriously, as far as the ambassadorial post is concerned. Rosan’s predecessor Muhammad Lutfi stayed on the job for just four months, whereas the envoy before him Mahendra Siregar was in Washington for only 10 months before being recalled.

This cavalier attitude was again shown when the administration of then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo nominated Wishnutama, a former television producer, as nominee for the US envoy position.

Faced with the prospect of another Trump administration and its ensuing chaos, President Prabowo made the right call when he withdraw the nominee lists for ambassadorial positions drawn up by the Jokowi administration.

And since the withdrawal, everyone was waiting to see if President Prabowo, who is well-regarded for his international outlook, would come up with a more promising roster of candidates whose qualifications could match his foreign policy ambitions.

On the surface, the list of nominees recently sent to the House of Representatives looks solid with most candidates being career diplomats including senior foreign ministry hands like Abdul Kadir Jaelani for the ambassadorial position in Berlin, Sidharto Suryodipuro for United Nations mission in Geneva and Umar Hadi for permanent mission to the UN in New York.

On closer inspection, the list in fact is not as stellar as it should be.

Former maritime affairs minister Indroyono Susilo being nominated for ambassador to Washington was certainly an upgrade from the last individual proposed for the job, but his appointment is certainly a head-scratcher.

The 70-year old has never held an ambassadorial post before and ever since his resignation from president Jokowi’s cabinet only after one year in office, we heard very little from him.

There is a dearth of information regarding Indroyono’s engagement with global diplomacy or any activities with the US.

It seems that President Prabowo was convinced that the track record of Indroyono’s father, Susilo Sudarman, who served as ambassador to the US between 1986 and 1988, would be enough to navigate his way around Washington.

As trade negotiations with the US in the past three months have shown, diplomacy under the Trump administration requires grit and resolve and we are not sure if and when Indroyono is confirmed, he will bring much to the table.

The same goes for Prabowo’s nominee in Tokyo, 75-year-old Nurmala Kartini Sjahrir. As the ambassador to Argentina, Kartini has done a tremendous job becoming the first Indonesian envoy to be given the Order de Mayo al Mérito en el Grado de Gran Cruz by the Argentinian government in 2014.

Now, 11 years after her last posting in Buenos Aires, Kartini, the sister of National Economic Council chief Luhut Pandjaitan, carried a major responsibility of representing Indonesia in dealing with Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy and one of Indonesia’s biggest trading partners.

For two of Indonesia’s most strategic partners, the nominees are a bit underwhelming and we can only hope in the next batch, which also include the position in Beijing, the Foreign Ministry can come up with more inspiring picks.