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.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsA friend in need: Reclaiming solidarity for humanity
True diplomacy is more than a calculation of interests. It is a commitment to stand together when the world is at its most fragile.
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!
A crowd of residents heads out of a government distribution point in Sukadanau village, Bekasi, West Java, after receiving free rice via a social welfare program on Feb. 16, 2024. (Antara/Pradita Kurniawan Syah)
W
e have all heard the saying, “a friend in need is a friend indeed”. It sounds simple; perhaps too simple for the complex theater of international politics. But that simplicity is exactly why it is worth revisiting today.
The world is not short of cooperation. Our calendars are filled with summits, partnerships and joint statements. Yet, something feels different. Support is often measured, timed and calculated; it appears when interests align and fades when they do not. In such a transactional setting, the word “friendship” begins to feel out of place.
For many nations across Asia and Africa, it was never meant to be this way.
When leaders gathered at the Bandung Conference in 1955, they were doing more than outlining diplomatic positions. They were speaking from a shared soul of experience. Most had endured colonial rule; many were still finding their footing as sovereign states. There was a profound sense at the time that relations among nations should not merely repeat the exploitative patterns of the past.
The Bandung Principles reflected that spirit: respect for sovereignty, equality, noninterference and peaceful coexistence. But behind those formal terms was a more direct conviction: the idea that countries should stand by one another, especially when it is difficult.
Beyond the politics lay an even simpler truth: Friendship among nations must ultimately serve humanity.
Today, that idea feels less visible. While cooperation continues, it often follows interest too closely, appearing only when useful. But friendship, if it is to mean anything, cannot stop there. It must go further, because friendship is not an end in itself.
