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View all search results[COMMENTARY] US Secretary of State Pompeo’s visit is more of a farewell
Jokowi will not underestimate Trump’s chances of reelection. Neither will he squander the opportunity of Indonesia-US defense cooperation that his Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has gained from his recent trip to Washington.
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s a Javanese man who was raised in the Central Java city of Surakarta, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will pretend he does not know that the United States election is only a few days ahead when he hosts US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, scheduled for Wednesday. Less than week after his arrival in Jakarta Pompeo may turn into a lame duck foreign minister along with his boss President Donald Trump.
But Jokowi will not underestimate Trump’s chances of reelection. Neither will he squander the opportunity of Indonesia-US defense cooperation that his Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has gained from his recent trip to Washington.
Indonesia, as well as all of ASEAN, needs a strong US military presence in the region, amid escalating tension in the region now that China has become more assertive in its claim over a large swath of the South China Sea. Indonesia, however, never wants to form any security alliance despite regional rivalries.
Now the guest from Washington, DC is seemingly engaged in an impossible mission: To persuade, or more precisely, to pressure Indonesia to work closely with the US in cornering and isolating China, which is Indonesia’s most important trading partner. The mission comes as Washington’s global power and influence is diminishing in part because Trump has slashed many fiscal and economic incentives, while unilaterally punishing its allies and strategic partners.
Last February, for example, Washington officially removed Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam—from the list of developing and least-developed countries. This meant Indonesia would no longer receive special differential treatment (SDT) available in the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. The policy has definitely affected Indonesia’s exports to the US.
I can guess that Jokowi will be half-hearted in responding to any message from President Trump, especially after latest polling showed Trump’s likely defeat to Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden. If the polling is accurate, then Pompeo’s visit is technically a matter of courtesy.
This does not mean that Jokowi prefers Biden as the winner, however, because traditionally the Democratic Party tends to make a fuss about labor, human rights and fair-trade issues. The Republicans usually do not pay too much attention to those matters but focus on profits and advantages.
