It is no surprise that two of the most pressing agendas in his foreign policy are the protection of Indonesian citizens abroad and economic diplomacy with the aim of increasing trade and investment flow to Indonesia.

A former mayor of Surakarta, Central Java, who was most at ease touring the city's traditional market or checking on roads and bridges, as president Jokowi has eschewed pomp and ceremony and has shied away from speechifying and grandstanding.

While his erstwhile political rival and now his Defense Minister, Prabowo Subianto, has developed the habit of making big statements when overseas, including earlier this month in Singapore where he caused a stir by proposing a peace plan in Ukraine, President Jokowi has never once set foot in the United Nations headquarters to address a global audience.

Even last year, when he could have used his presence at the UN to promote a peace initiative in Ukraine in the lead-up to the Group of 20 Summit in Bali, again Jokowi decided to call off his visit to New York.

And when he finally decided to take up the big task of working on a peaceful solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, President Jokowi insisted on giving it a pragmatic edge.

Finding ways to mediate the conflict was certainly on the agenda when Jokowi visited Kyiv and Moscow late last year, but there were also concrete deliverables that he attempted to bring home; uninterrupted access to grain and fertilizer that Indonesia relies so much on for its economic and political stability.

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