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Jokowi tells ASEAN partners to strive for win-win outcomes
President Jokowi called on ASEAN's dialogue partners to eschew the zero-sum game and work with ASEAN to realize its huge potential as an epicenter of growth.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo gives a speech during a courtesy call meeting on the sidelines of the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta on July 14, 2023. (Handout/Courtesy of Foreign Affairs Ministry)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reminded the foreign ministers of ASEAN’s major partners to strive for win-win solutions in their engagements with the bloc and prevent the Indo-Pacific from becoming a place of contestation.
The Indonesian leader, who is chairing the association this year, offered his advice to the top diplomats of ASEAN dialogue partners as they called on him for a courtesy visit at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta on Friday.
In his remarks to the batik-clad ministers, Jokowi riffed on his economy-forward approach to the region and the theme of Indonesia’s chairmanship, ASEAN as “an epicenter of growth”, underscoring the bloc’s huge potential as a convening power that could otherwise be undermined by zero-sum thinking and one-upmanship.
He used the Javanese saying of menang tanpa ngasorake (literally: to win without demeaning others) to call on all parties to become dignified, not sore, winners together.
“ASEAN countries are developing countries that require the understanding, wisdom and support of advanced nations and partner countries to leave behind the zero-sum approach and seek win-win solutions,” he said.
