_Map.jpg)
By Prashanth Parameswaran
Jakarta has outlined its foreign policy priorities. Actually achieving them could be a challenge.
On January 8, Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi officially outlined her office’s foreign policy priorities in her first annual policy statement (PDF) in Jakarta. Indonesian foreign policy over the next five years under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Retno said, will be focused on three priorities: maintaining Indonesia’s sovereignty, enhancing the protection of Indonesian citizens, and intensifying economic diplomacy.
Those who follow Indonesia closely will not find any of these particularly surprising. They are in line with Jokowi’s “firm, dignified, down to earth, pro-people” foreign policy which aims to secure the needs of the Indonesian people first and foremost – a welcome correction, some argue, to the overly elitist and internationalist worldview of his predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Retno as well as Jokowi’s advisers have also been repeating these priorities since October last year, and they have already begun work on them.
Yet while these key priorities make sense and may provide useful direction for Indonesian foreign policy going forward, each of them could pose significant challenges for Jokowi and his team moving forward.
Read the full story at The Diplomat