If this year’s theme of G20 “Recover stronger, Recover Together” perfectly embodies one thing, it is Indonesia’s recovery from mistake of insisting on taking a neutral stance toward Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, then supporting a declaration of condemnation against such a Russian illegal act.
It’s a recovery from foreign policy foolishness to common sense and nobility in line with Indonesia’s ideals and ideology enshrined within its constitution which upholds and respects human rights and freedom while rejecting invasion, colonialism, use of violence and wars. Its constitution even orders any Indonesian government and people to join efforts in keeping and maintaining the world peace.
The G20 summit in Bali concluded Wednesday with a joint communique called G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration that among others “deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.”
As this year’s president of G20 Indonesia plays a determining role in allowing such strong words against Russia included in the declaration. It’s quite a change of position from Indonesia’s previous stance as the country always refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, with its initial statement right after the invasion did not even mention Russia. Now, it allows the use of word “aggression” and even demand the unconditional withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine.
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As if wanting to say so much for the neutrality hype, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo even verbally said it himself when he addressed the media, telling them “world leaders agreed on the content of the declaration, namely condemnation to the war in Ukraine, which violates its territorial integrity.
He then highlighted undisputed fact that possibly made Indonesia came to its senses: this war “has caused massive public suffering, and also jeopardizing the global economy that is still vulnerable from the pandemic, which also caused risks for food and energy crises, as well as financial crisis.”
So no, the declaration is not about isolating Russia, and we have to flatly reject suggestion that this is a victory of the US and its Western allies. The declaration is about doing the right thing, and about defending millions of people suffering from Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
It should be noted that without Indonesia’s changing its position it would be impossible for G20 summit to issue a declaration such this strong.
The ability of the G20 to issue a declaration also underscores Indonesia’s success the host and president of the G20, with previous doubts surfacing that this year’s G20 summit will be the first summit to fail to issue a united voice as Russia and other benefitting from its natural resource exports would block such a “politicized stance”, a condition that would have heavily humiliated Indonesia.
We should highlight the hard work by Indonesian officials – led by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno P. Marsudi, and of course, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as well as senior diplomat like Dian Triansyah Djani and Edi Pambudi, a deputy at the office of the Coordinating Minister for the economy – in making the united stance possible, and when they are united we should never doubt the brilliance of Indonesian brains. It was their skills, experience and hard works that finally saved Indonesia and Jokowi from humiliation of presiding the first ever G20 conference failing to produce a declaration.
Leading up to the G20 summit in Bali, many have expressed pessimism that the grouping was too divided to come up with a united voice on any issues they are discussing. And for this, it would be tough for them to issue a declaration, creating a humiliating situation for Indonesia, the president of this year’s G20, because failing to create such a declaration – the first failure in the G20 history – means not only Indonesia fails to get enough respect from other members but also it can be seen as having a weak leadership.
To make the chance of producing a declaration looked slim was the fact that several Indonesia’s top officials seemed to giving up, with Luhut, who seemed to have no idea of how diplomacy and multilateral conference work, was quoted by media as saying that with such a divided world it would be understandable not to be able to produce a joint declaration.
Luhut, seen as the most powerful figure in government after Jokowi, has been the man behind most of Indonesia’s important policies, including foreign policies. Indonesia’s initial confusing statement of not condemning Russia’s invasion against Ukraine was seen as his dictation, creating flurry of questions and criticism from inside and outside the country.
But the declaration shows that Indonesia and its officials, perhaps including Luhut, has returned to the right path.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said well on the significance of the declaration to condemn Russia’s aggression: “it is important that these views were expressed, and that Russia knows that this is the weight of the opinion of the international community and that view that Russia is in the wrong has not changed. If we had not said those statements or if we had not been able to put those statements into the communique, I think it would have been a weakening of our moral case and a weakening of the pressure which is necessary to be brought to bear on a country which has transgressed against international norms and undermined the UN Charter.”
If any, the Bali conference with its multilateral diplomacy atmosphere should have taught Jokowi that foreign policy was not merely about short-sighted and narrow-minded goals of reaping economic benefits or getting other people’s money, for instance, to realize his ambition of developing the country’s new capital in East Kalimantan.
There are pride and honor in diplomacy for the greater good to achieve something for the benefits of the whole world. And with this recovery of the mindset Indonesia and the whole world will come out of the summit stronger.
