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View all search resultsPrabowo needs a more credible foreign policy team
President Prabowo’s impulsive personal diplomacy is bypassing the institutional expertise of the Foreign Ministry, risking Indonesia’s strategic interests on the global stage.
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Surprise visit: President Prabowo Subianto (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting on Dec, 10, 2025, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow. (AFP/Pool/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
M
any Indonesians, regardless of their background, likely agree that President Prabowo Subianto has been overthinking his foreign policy while remaining completely alone in materializing a vision often marked by spontaneity and impulsiveness.
The President should reconsider this practice of "one-man-show" diplomacy. The time has come for him to drastically change his strategic approach by reducing his direct involvement in granular details and instead revamping the Foreign Ministry and its leadership. While he remains the commander-in-chief of diplomacy, he must delegate implementation to experienced, capable, and trusted confidantes.
It is difficult to ignore the public apprehension that the President may have made questionable, if not misguided, concessions in his meetings with world leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Donald Trump, despite his repeated claims that he prioritizes national interests when he goes into bilateral and multilateral agreement.
The President would achieve more productive and balanced outcomes if he first consulted senior advisors who dare to challenge his views. He should quickly reverse the current tendency and return to traditional diplomatic procedures, where final decisions on major issues are made only after undergoing thorough evaluation by senior officials at the Foreign Ministry and other relevant ministries.
The recent controversies surrounding proposed blanket overflight rights for US aircraft and the introduction of transit fees for vessels in the Malacca Strait underscore a critical reality: The Foreign Ministry provides the essential guardrails necessary to prevent damage to Indonesia’s international relations. However, it remains to be seen whether these institutional checks can effectively coexist with President Prabowo’s diplomatic ambitions.
Under a more traditional framework, the President would receive a practically finished concept, while retaining the prerogative to revise or reject the proposal. This was the common practice of most of his seven predecessors, who focused heavily on national economic and socio-political development.
No matter how influential Indonesia becomes on the global stage, the domestic public eventually cares most about their livelihoods at home. While the President has successfully boosted Indonesia’s global presence through personal encounters with leaders like Trump, Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union heads of state, many doubt that this personal closeness can translate into tangible benefits for national economic interests.
