As each other’s strategic economic partner, any failure to mitigate existing disputes will only drag out the glacial progress on the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EU CEPA), with some suggesting that more productive dialogue is needed to keep ties intact.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy has led an uneasy yet robust partnership with the Euro bloc that has seen their interests conflict, with Brussels eager to impose its brand sustainability-forward policymaking on Jakarta at the expense of Indonesia’s urgent need to industrialize.

The past few months have seen the two sides embroiled in a public rift following the World Trade Organization’s ruling in November against Indonesia’s ban on raw nickel ore exports, a decision the EU has challenged. The dispute further complicated an already complex relationship rooted in disagreements over Indonesian palm oil production in relation to the European Green Deal, which restricts imports failing to meet EU sustainability requirements.

When it came to the trade disputes, Jokowi was defiant. The President had drawn parallels between the WTO ruling and colonial-era forced labor, and delivered sharp remarks at the EU-ASEAN Summit in December.

Brussels has shied away from any sharp retorts, preferring instead to stick to earlier talking points. The EU Mission to Indonesia plans to hold a press event soon.

But such bluntness may be necessary and would not necessarily wound diplomatic ties if it meant that both sides would open up going forward, said Riza Noer Arfani, an international relations expert from Gadjah Mada University.

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