Assessing President Yudhoyono’s foreign policy Yayan GH Mulyana  ;   An assistant to the President’s special staff  for international relations

JAKARTA POST,  03 Maret 2014

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                         

                                                      

Indonesian foreign policy in 2013 was marked by intensive diplomacy at bilateral, regional as well as global levels and was one of the busiest periods for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s international activities during his second term. Bilateral diplomacy under Yudhoyono last year tapped into the potential of partners in the Asia Pacific (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Timor Leste and Vietnam), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia), Africa (Liberia and Nigeria), Europe (Belarus, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the Netherlands) and the Americas (Argentina, Mexico and Peru). New and renewed commitments with those partners aimed to expand and deepen bilateral relations in various fields. Advancements toward comprehensive or strategic bilateral relations were also made with some countries. In July 2013, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea signed up to a comprehensive partnership arrangement. In November, Indonesia and the Netherlands signed a similar deal. And in October, Indonesia and China agreed to elevate bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Within the bilateral framework with the Netherlands, Indonesia also promoted triangular cooperation on fisheries and aquaculture. Under this modality, Indonesia, together with the Netherlands, can serve as a provider of development cooperation support to other developing countries. These all certainly invigorated the growing architecture of Indonesia’s bilateralism during 2013. However, by the end of 2013, the revelation of Australia’s spying activities in Indonesia caused a fracture in Indonesian–Australian relations and Indonesia boldly responded. The whole architecture of Indonesia’s bilateralism remained intact in 2013. It even built more invaluable dividends in a bid to create more tangible impacts from foreign policy on national progress and development. Regionally, one of Indonesia’s significant contributions was the commencement of formal consultations between ASEAN and China on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea — which is essential to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region. Notable progress on the ASEAN Community — comprising the political and security community, the economic community and also the social and cultural community — was also made in 2013. In 2013 Indonesia once again had a historic opportunity to assume the chairmanship and leadership of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Indonesia seized this opportunity to ensure the full realization of the Bogor Goals while injecting two other priorities — sustainable growth with equity and connectivity — into the APEC agenda. To ensure that non-APEC Asia-Pacific economies benefitted from APEC, as chair Indonesia invited leaders from the Pacific Islands economies to participate in the 2013 APEC Summit. This was in line with Indonesia’s regional diplomacy, which aspires to inclusive regionalism. At the global level, on one historic morning on May 30 last year on behalf of the co-chairs and members of the UN panel of eminent persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, President Yudhoyono presented the final report of the panel to the UN secretary-general and to the UN General Assembly. The report identified 12 goals of the post-2015 development agenda. In line with the commitment to use global diplomacy for combating poverty and achieving sustained prosperity, Indonesia was also advocating the development agenda at the St Petersburg G20 Summit, as well as at the Doha Development Agenda in Bali in December 2013. Yet, Indonesia’s diplomacy last year also had limitations, particularly evident in the Syrian conflict. The President recognized the limitation of power and influence with regard to the Syrian conflict, as explained in his statement to the press at the end of the G20 Summit in St Petersburg on Sept. 7 — which was reiterated in his recent book Selalu Ada Pilihan (There is Always a Choice). Yet, Indonesia remained active in galvanizing regional and global support for an immediate, peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict, reflecting the country’s middle way approach to an immediate and peaceful resolution of the conflict. That is also why Indonesia was invited by the UN secretary-general to participate in the recent Geneva II Conference on Syria. Apart from diplomacy, the country also used “soft power”, including development and technical assistance as well as scholarships and cultural cooperation. In November 2013, the President also initiated the World Culture Forum — intended as an annual forum for global dialogue on culture as a driver for peace and progress. The use of a military component as a foreign policy instrument was high in 2013, mainly within the framework of UN peace missions. Indonesia deployed more than 1,800 personnel in seven UN peace missions — the largest in Lebanon (UNIFIL) amounting to 1,288 personnel. Indonesia also deployed a sigma class corvette KRI Diponegoro-365 to secure Lebanese waters. At a doctrinal level, free and active, or bebas aktif, remained the main principles of Yudhoyono’s foreign policy while he continued to use the framework of “a million friends and zero enemies”. In the case of Syria, for example, the President proposed a middle way comprising the cessation of hostilities, the delivery of humanitarian assistance and an inclusive political process. He also diversified Indonesia’s cooperation and partnerships with countries not only from Asia and the Pacific but also from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. The year 2013 also posed a great challenge of coordination within the foreign policy establishment, notably with the President’s strong commitment to regionalize and internationalize the manifesto of sustainable growth with equity; particularly apparent when Indonesia was mainstreaming the manifesto into the post-2015 development agenda. It was a challenge to coordinate coherent steps involving not only the Foreign Ministry as the diplomatic engine but also monitoring and planning agencies such as the Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4) and the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) as well as technical ministries such as the ministries of health, education, environment and forestry. Development in the foreign policy sector will always be critical in the future. ●

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