Labuan Bajo – After leading the G20 Presidency, Indonesia has regained the trust to play an important role with the ASEAN chairmanship at the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo. Indonesia’s chairmanship of ASEAN in 2023 is expected to bring ASEAN into a regional organization that is resilient and remains relevant in facing various international challenges and problems for the next 20 years.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said strengthening the affirmation and centrality of ASEAN is needed by building rules of the game for the interaction of outside countries in the Southeast Asia and Indo-Pacific region based on the principles of cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, transparency, respect for international law, and mutual trust and respect for one another.
“We certainly hope that at the 2023 ASEAN Summit, with Indonesia as chairman, we can continue to produce concrete formulations at the level of implementation and operationalization of the AOIP, bearing in mind that the Indo-Pacific is a very strategic region, so that the resulting formulation can be comprehensive in terms of security, economic and development approaches. so that creative economic activities, digital economy investment business, and infrastructure and others can support sustainable development,” said President Jokowi.
Strengthening ASEAN’s affirmation and centrality as stated in the theme ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth is needed by building rules of the game for the interaction of outside countries in the Southeast Asia and Indo-Pacific region based on the principles of cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, transparency, respect for law international relations, and mutual trust and respect for one another.
Indonesia has shown its commitment to supporting the realization of this, at least it can be seen from the handling of issues in the Indo-Pacific which is the arena for big country competition, Indonesia has led the formation of the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP) which was adopted by ASEAN in 2019 as an affirmation of centrality ASEAN.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto said Indonesia held the position of Chair of the 2023 ASEAN Summit with the theme ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth. In this moment, Indonesia is determined to strengthen ASEAN’s relevance as a center for regional economic growth.
“The holding of the 2023 ASEAN Summit boosts the national economy in various cities where side events are held. The digital economy has been re-appointed as one of the three pillars of Indonesia’s chairmanship in ASEAN in addition to recovery, rebuilding and sustainability with the hope of accelerating inclusive digital transformation to reduce the digital divide in the region,” said Airlangga.
Previously, Indonesia’s chairmanship in 2011 had succeeded in carrying out an agenda to increase ASEAN’s confidence and coherence so that it could play a role and make a greater contribution to helping solve world problems. Indonesia has also succeeded in proving its diplomatic strategy to lead the search for a solution to the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s chairmanship for ASEAN in 2023 has quite complex international challenges and problems, both from a geopolitical and economic perspective. First, the challenge comes from big country competition, such as between the United States and China and the United States and Russia. (*)
