Glembert
KN. In just one week, two encounters in different parts of the world showed the balance Indonesia is trying to strike between its strategic and economic interests. In the Russian city of Kazan, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono was doing the diplomatic rounds to promote Jakarta’s bid to become a full member of BRICS, a China-backed bloc of emerging economies. Thousands of kilometers away in the South China Sea, Indonesian patrol ships were driving away Chinese coast guard vessels in waters where the countries have overlapping maritime claims. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will perform that balancing act again later this month when he visits Beijing on a multi-stop trip to raise Jakarta’s international standing.
Shafiah Muhibat, deputy executive director for research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia, said one issue in its ties with China was unlikely to affect the other. Yeremia Lalisang, an international relations lecturer at the University of Indonesia, noted that Indonesia might be waiting for “a better proposal” from Washington, indicating that the BRICS membership bid might be a hint to the West.
Defense University (Unhan) in collaboration with the Indonesian Sinology Forum (FSI) and the Indonesian Maritime Security Initiative (Indomasive) held a seminar highlighting China’s efforts to conduct defense diplomacy in Southeast Asia – a “double-edged sword” for the countries in the region: China seems to want to strengthen cooperation with countries in the region, but insists on recognizing most of the South China Sea as its own and tends to act aggressively in the region.
Alfin Febrian Basundoro, a master’s in strategic studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, and Trystanto Sanjaya, a master’s student in geopolitics and business at the Rennes School of Business said Indonesia should not take BRICS’ official pronouncements at face value. It must read between the lines: Russia is using BRICS to show that it still has supporters from the Global South against the Global North who are supporting Ukraine, thus portraying it as a civilizational struggle. Additionally, most of Indonesia’s economic outreach with BRICS countries has happened outside the BRICS framework, thus rendering its outreach through BRICS unnecessary.
The absence of cabinet-level officials has cost Indonesia an opportunity to benefit from, let alone lead, environmental talks that could help Global South countries navigate the double whammy of the biodiversity and climate crises. The real fight will be at the negotiation table in Baku, where Indonesia is expected to show a strong and serious commitment to climate mitigation and adaptation.
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