Taking a closer look at progress of Indonesia’s leadership globally
Jakarta: For the last few years, Indonesia’s leadership role at the global level has become the world’s focus.
This can be seen in the last two years, when the country has demonstrated its leadership by holding two major international events: the G20 Summit in 2022 and the ASEAN Summit in 2023.
Indonesia has proven its big role in the international arena through the success of the G20 Summit held in Bali in November 2022.
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the main forum for international economic cooperation, comprising major economic countries in the world. The G20 consists of 19 countries and the European Union.
Indonesia carried out the G20 presidency in 2022 amid increasing geopolitical tensions arising due to the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine.
At that time, Indonesia, as the G20 President, had to make arrangements so that all G20 members could attend and sit together to discuss common interests, regardless of tensions between some Western countries and Russia due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Despite the tension and struggles, Indonesia’s leadership at the G20 Summit has been able to result in several agreements, one of the most important being the G20 leaders’ declaration, also known as the G20 Bali Leaders Declaration, over which several parties initially cast their doubts.
The declaration consists of 52 paragraphs, in which the most debated is the outlook towards the war in Ukraine.
Although the discussion regarding the paragraph related to the war in Ukraine was quite tough, the G20 leaders ultimately agreed on the contents of the declaration, namely the condemnation of the war in Ukraine, as it had violated territorial boundaries and territorial integrity.
Moreover, the Indonesian G20 Presidency was a turning point in the nation’s revival after the COVID-19 pandemic as well as an event that Indonesia was able to successfully use to showcase its leadership role in facing global challenges.
Moreover, throughout 2023, Indonesia has played its leadership role at the regional level through its chairmanship at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
During the G20 presidency, Indonesia has also faced several challenges in its ASEAN chairmanship with great pressure on ASEAN to immediately handle the political crisis and humanitarian problems in Myanmar.
In responding to the pressure, Indonesia has been relatively successful in carrying out its role as ASEAN Chairman, during which it has firmly not yet given the opportunity to political representatives from Myanmar to attend various ASEAN meetings throughout 2023, including the 43rd Summit.
It is because the leader of the Myanmar Junta was considered negligent by ASEAN in implementing the five points of consensus (5PC), which consists of focusing on securing an immediate cessation of violence, holding dialogue with all stakeholders, appointing a special envoy to facilitate mediation and dialogue, allowing ASEAN to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar citizens, as well as allowing ASEAN special envoys to visit and meet with stakeholders in Myanmar.
However, at the same time, Indonesia, during its chairmanship, has continued to engage with various stakeholders in Myanmar.
Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi stated that during the nine months of its ASEAN chairmanship, Indonesia had conducted a very flexible and intensive engagement to help resolve the issue in Myanmar.
In fact, after the handover of the chairmanship of ASEAN to Lao PDR, Indonesia will continue to demonstrate its leadership role in overcoming regional problems by continuing to work to handle the crisis in Myanmar through the troika mechanism in ASEAN.
Troika is an informal consultation mechanism within ASEAN consisting of current, previous, and future ASEAN chairs.
Through its role in the troika, Indonesia will ensure that access to humanitarian aid continues to be gradually expanded, including in areas of active conflict in Myanmar.
Apart from leading efforts in handling political problems in ASEAN, Indonesia, as the 2023 ASEAN Chair, has also encouraged the progress of countries in the region in terms of economic aspects.
Eagerness to encourage ASEAN economic progress was demonstrated by Indonesia in the selection of the theme “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth” during its chairmanship.
Hence, the 43rd ASEAN Summit hosted by Indonesia was focused on the importance of strengthening economic cooperation, particularly through holding two supporting events, namely the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ABIS) and the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF).
Through the AIPF held on September 5-6, 2023, Indonesia is keen to advance cooperation in developing concrete projects, especially in three sectors, namely green infrastructure and supply chain resilience, digitalization and creative industries, and financing.
After successfully carrying out its chairmanship in ASEAN, Indonesia, in the same year, hosted the Archipelagic and Island States (AIS) Forum meetings in October.
The forum aims to strengthen collaboration between archipelagic and island countries regarding challenges in maritime issues that have become global problems, including climate change mitigation and adaptation; the blue economy; marine plastic debris; and good maritime governance.
The forum held its first high-level meeting in Bali on October 10-11, 2023, to strengthen its role as a center for smart and innovative solutions.
The AIS forum, comprising 51 countries, is also a platform to accommodate mutual cooperation in pushing forward the future agenda of global ocean governance.
By conducting AIS Forum meetings, Indonesia yet again demonstrated its leadership role in the world by hosting the forum that emphasizes concrete contributions to saving the future of archipelagic and island countries from climate change threats as a global problem.
In fact, as one of the initiating countries for the AIS Forum, Indonesia has committed to disbursing funding of US$5 million for the 2022-2025 period.
In 2019, Indonesia has already disbursed a contribution of US$1 million to establish a secretariat office for the AIS Forum in Jakarta as an implementation of cooperation and strengthening collaboration between countries.
The AIS forum, which is entering its fifth year, has the potential to become a great power, with the participation of 51 countries controlling a third of the world’s sea areas under the national jurisdiction of each archipelagic and island country.
These 51 countries have bargaining power and capacity that will certainly be heard in world forums, such as the United Nations (UN), for their future.
Thus, in the future, cooperation at the AIS Forum needs to be improved and continued.
Indonesia has called for the importance of the link between the sea and climate change.
Through those various forums, Indonesia, along with the international community, including countries under AIS, had significantly contributed to providing solutions to various global problems.
Furthermore, next year, Indonesia will continue to play a leadership role in the efforts to overcome various global challenges, such as by holding the 10th World Water Forum (WWF) scheduled for May next year in Bali. The forum aims to build global awareness of water resources.
The WWF is the world’s largest international forum that focuses on discussing water issues and seeking global solutions to such issues.
The 10th edition of the forum, themed “Water for Shared Prosperity,” is scheduled for May 18-24, 2024.
The 2024 WWF, hosted by Indonesia in Bali, is expected to provide momentum for international stakeholders to intensify cooperation on water management as well as exchange experience and innovation to overcome related issues globally.
Indonesia continues to demonstrate its leadership role not only through the task of organizing various international forums and events that contribute to handling various global issues but also through diplomatic efforts in helping resolve various geopolitical problems, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the crisis in Myanmar.
All track records of diplomatic efforts and responsibilities carried out by Indonesia, as a part of the world community, have shown the progress of Indonesia’s leadership at the global level.
