“The polygamous man can teach your government how to deal with the United States and China. Hopefully, you can pass the tight rope safely, or else you will end up in their bellies,” said the veteran diplomat.

It was just a joke, but Indonesia, as well as many other countries in the world, should not belittle the advice. In real life, they have to deal with China and the US and they cannot disregard either of them. In Indonesia’s case, it will never form a military alliance with either country, but it also realizes it is more difficult now to maintain its “free and active” foreign policy amid mounting pressure from the two giants.

Indonesia, like many other ASEAN members, knows doing business with the world’s second-largest economy China is more profitable than with the US, but at the same time, feels more comfortable with the presence of the US in the Indo-Pacific region. For some, China is a pleasant and trustworthy neighbor, but some others deem China as scary.

Washington is ready to provide ASEAN countries security insurance but certainly there is no such thing as a free lunch. But today the US is not so mighty as it was two decades ago, and China may soon replace the US as the world’s strongest country, both economically and militarily. ASEAN members need more alliances to counterbalance China without provoking its anger.

Indonesia and the US armed forces are now conducting perhaps the largest joint military exercise, taking place in Sumatra and Kalimantan with the attendance of military personnel from Singapore, Japan and Australia and a number of other countries as observers.

Last year, China reportedly protested the Garuda Shield Indonesia-US war exercise, saying it was disturbing the regional security stability. This time around, there is no objection from China, apparently because it is still preoccupied with the Taiwan issue.

China’s massive show of force surrounding Taiwan following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei last week clearly served as a reprimand for President Joe Biden and the US allies to not ever try to interfere with China’s sovereignty. The maneuvering also seemed to send a message to the people of China that their government would never tolerate any attempt from foreign forces to touch even just a span of China’s territory, including Taiwan.

For some ASEAN members that have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea with China, the show of force could be terrifying, because next time Beijing could deploy the same tactics to intimidate them.

Last month President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo toured East Asia to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul. The joint military exercise, dubbed the Super Garuda Shield, was not raised in Jokowi’s talks with President Xi, but in Tokyo Prime Minister Kishida openly expressed his appreciation that Japan was invited to the joint military training.

In an apparent bid to calm China, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Andika Perkasa said last week Indonesia had held two joint military exercises with China in 2012 and 2013 and stood ready for more bilateral cooperation with the major power. He dismissed allegations the military cooperation with the US was aimed at containing China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific area.

“It is not true at all. We have conducted this exercise for the 16^th time under any circumstances,” said Andika after officially opening the annual 14-day military exercise at the Baturaja Army Training Ground in South Sumatra along with US Army Pacific Commanding Gen. Charles A Flynn.  The former Indonesian Army chief acknowledged that the joint exercise was a reflection of the growing interests of countries in the region to enhance cooperation and share knowledge and experience.

He said Indonesia always welcomed a similar offer from China and other countries. “But the fact that there was no continuation later on [following the 2012 and 2013 exercises,] was possibly because it is not a priority [for China],” said Andika.

If you talk in private with the Indonesian general, I think he will give a more honest answer. Of course, the joint military exercise is aimed at enlarging Indonesia’s informal and symbolic alliance with other military power. Military alliances have become symbolic as the Ukraine war is showing – Ukraine has had to defend itself from Russia’s occupation.

According to The Jakarta Post’s report, more than 5,000 military personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are participating in the largest military drill since the program began in 2007. This was the first time that other countries joined Indonesia and the US’ collaboration.

Apart from Baturaja, the joint exercise also took place at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin Airport in Palembang, also in South Sumatra, the Dabo Singkep marine training center in Riau Islands and the Amborawang military training ground in East Kalimantan.

According to Antara news agency, China sent 120 navy personnel when participating in the Komodo Multilateral Naval Exercise in March 2014 along with the US, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The multilateral cooperation was aimed at building capacity in the face of natural and man-made disasters. It was held in Batam, Natuna and Anambas in Riau Islands province.

China has already been disturbed by the loose Quad military cooperation between the US, India, Japan and Australia. To make matter worse, the US, Australia and the United Kingdom established the AUKUS military pact, which will allow Washington to provide Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines. Indonesia raised its concerns about AUKUS, although Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said he could understand it.

Indonesia needs both China and the US, but we do not want them to dictate us simply because of their economic and military might. But we barely have a choice. Like my friend said, please just preserve our stamina to control the “two wives”.

 ***

The writer is a senior editor at The Jakarta Post.