In 2018, the Australia–Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership recognised a ‘proximity advantage’ between eastern Indonesia and northern Australia offering ripe opportunities for development, growth and cooperation.
Strategy
In a live speech broadcast on Youtube, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo extended his condolences and “deep sympathy” for victims of the Myanmar military crackdown on protesters, and urged for the violence to be immediately ceased.
Jakarta’s efforts to help its Southeast Asian neighbour are partly aimed at keeping it within ASEAN’s orbit rather than China’s, experts say.
The US will not grant China any improvement in relations until Beijing stops its economic coercion of Australia, according to President Biden’s new Indo-Pacific co-ordinator.
From Canberra’s perspective, closer ties between Paris and Jakarta are undoubtedly a positive thing. For one, Australia supports France’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s government has intensified its vaccine diplomacy in the region, offering its locally made Sinopharm jab to several South-East Asian nations including Indonesia.
We have little reason to aspire to reshaping Indonesian perceptions of us to the extent necessary for the effects of soft power to materialise if domestically we’re sending signals that Indonesia holds no attraction for us.
Any Australian government that’s serious about making it an integral part of a strategy for addressing the country’s strategic challenges therefore also needs to get serious about a key instrument for achieving that: public diplomacy.
