The minister was visiting the US capital on official business at the invitation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the first such a meeting between them since US President Joe Biden took office earlier this year.

The three-day trip comes amid virtual ASEAN ministerial meetings and the first clear sign of a “pivot” to Southeast Asia by high-ranking US officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam, and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand.

Pundits have bemoaned the stagnant bilateral ties between Indonesia and the US over the past few years, but Retno said Indonesia was committed to strengthening the two countries' strategic partnership.

“My visit to Washington, DC, is clear proof of Indonesia's commitment to improving the Indonesia-US bilateral relationship,” she said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Retno was at the White House on Monday to meet with Biden’s National Security (NSA) adviser, Jake Sullivan, who pledged an additional US$30 million in COVID-19 assistance to Indonesia.

The assistance, which is to be delivered in the form of oxygen tanks and medical supplies, brings the total value of US aid to Indonesia since the start of the pandemic to more than $65 million.

A US Embassy statement later added that Washington was providing additional support through the American Rescue Plan Act, which brings the total amount of COVID-19 assistance to Indonesia to $77 million.

Sullivan said at the meeting that the fresh assistance would also support cold-chain vaccine distribution and infrastructure preparedness, as well as other measures.

He also noted Sunday’s shipment of an additional 3.5 million mRNA-based Moderna vaccines under the COVAX facility, a multilateral vaccine dose-sharing initiative, which brings the total US contribution to 8 million doses.

“They discussed US efforts to serve as an arsenal of vaccines for the world and our singular focus on saving lives,” National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement after Monday’s meeting.

Retno conveyed Indonesia’s appreciation for US support, saying that the two countries should begin to discuss long-term cooperation in the health sector in order to increase national, regional and global capacities in responding to future pandemics.

"Indonesia is hopeful for US support in building Indonesia's capacity to develop vaccines with the latest technology based on mRNA, as well as therapeutic drugs for infectious diseases," she said.

Among the various COVID-19 vaccines available, the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) jabs make use of a new method that works differently, including from the Sinovac-manufactured vaccine that is widely used in Indonesia’s immunization drive and that uses the inactivated virus as a platform.

Instead, mRNA vaccines teach cells how to produce proteins that can trigger the body’s immune response, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US has authorized two mRNA vaccines – the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine – that have shown efficacy levels of over 90 percent, which suggest that they are likely to offer more protection.

During the first day of her visit, Retno also met with representatives of American pharmaceutical companies, including from Eli Lilly & Co., which supplies various drugs to treat COVID-19; Arcturus Therapeutics, which is a clinical-stage mRNA medicine and vaccine manufacturer; and the Baylor College of Medicine, a research center for recombinant protein vaccines.

According to the Indonesian side, Eli Lilly & Co. pledged to send $52.6 million worth of COVID-19 treatment drugs.

“In meetings with vaccine developers, the discussion revolved around the possibility of a collaboration to develop mRNA-based vaccines in Indonesia, so that we would have the ability to develop the latest-technology vaccines and cooperation beyond COVID-19,” the Foreign Ministry explained in Tuesday’s statement.

Arcturus has been working with a Vietnamese company on a clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ARCT-154, which is reported to target newer variants, including the fast-spreading Delta strain, according to a press release from the company's website.

Retno also met with the White House’s Asia policy lead, Kurt M. Campbell, who helped Arcturus land the Vietnam project through an affiliated think tank.

Demand for cooperation on vaccine production with the US has been high. In November last year, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan also visited Washington, DC, to meet then-president Donald Trump and former vice president Mike Pence, who also offered joint vaccine production cooperation between American and Indonesian companies.

The discussion of fresh initiatives on vaccine cooperation has become a standout avenue of engagement as Washington looks to grow its influence at a time when China has promised Indonesia it would help it become the next vaccine production hub for Southeast Asia.

Indonesia has been asking China to send a technical team to discuss the cooperation in detail, but Beijing has only provided assurances that Chinese vaccinemakers would carry out more clinical trials in Indonesia and promote the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.

The US previously made a pledge alongside allies Japan, India and Australia to produce and supply 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to Southeast Asia, but the plan now hangs in the balance following India’s ban on vaccine exports just a month after the announcement in March.

In addition to COVID-19 cooperation, Retno and Sullivan also discussed the political crisis in Myanmar, Indo-Pacific cooperation, the South China Sea dispute, the Afghan peace process and cooperation on environmental issues.

She is scheduled to meet with Blinken in Washington, DC, on Tuesday before heading back to Indonesia.

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