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Jakarta Post

Foreign Minister to attend ASEAN retreat in Malaysia

Indonesia's top diplomat is heading off this weekend in his second solo outing to attend the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Langkawi, which kicks off Malaysia's 2025 chairmanship of the regional grouping.

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, January 16, 2025

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Foreign Minister to attend ASEAN retreat in Malaysia Foreign Minister Sugiono delivers a speech at an event in Jakarta on Jan. 10, 2025, against a digital projection of a November 2024 editorial by ‘The Jakarta Post’. (The Jakarta Post/M. Taufiqurrahman)

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oreign Minister Sugiono would be attending a high-level ASEAN retreat this weekend in Langkawi to kick off the Malaysian chairmanship of the regional grouping this year, a ministry spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

The event follows Sugiono’s maiden foreign policy speech last week, in which he emphasized that the administration of President Prabowo Subianto would continue to promote and uphold ASEAN centrality amid concerns that Indonesia might look beyond Southeast Asia as a policy priority.

“President Prabowo has emphasized that Indonesia will like to be a good neighbor. Of course as a neighbor, this begins in ASEAN,” the minister said on Jan. 10.

The Langkawi retreat also comes after Sugiono accompanied the President on his one-day visit to Malaysia for closed-door talks with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as well as last month’s informal ASEAN meeting in Thailand that broached Myanmar’s protracted coup crisis.

Sugiono did not attend the ASEAN meeting in Thailand, which coincided with the Myanmar junta’s briefing for regional neighbors close to the crisis. His absence caused some analysts to suggest that Indonesia was ignoring crucial issues in its own backyard.

Ten-nation ASEAN, Southeast Asia’s premier regional organization, is often criticized for its glacial progress owing to its consensus-based decision making process.

Over the years, various scholars have urged Indonesia, as the region’s largest economy and most populous nation, to operate beyond ASEAN constraints, a suggestion that successive governments have rebuffed.

The ASEAN retreat in Langkawi would mark the minister’s second solo overseas outing since his appointment in October, after a successful high-profile visit to Russia to restart Indonesia’s accession to BRICS that resulted in founding member Brazil announcing the country’s entry to the loose association of Global South countries last week.

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat is set to begin on Saturday and officially launches Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship 2025.

The event is expected to see the attendance of over 200 foreign delegates, Amran Mohamed Zin, secretary-general of the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Tuesday.

Amran also said the 46th ASEAN Summit was slated to be held alongside the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit in mid-2025, while the 47th ASEAN Summit would be held toward the year-end, Viet Nam News reported. (tjs)

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