Indonesia in the UN Security Council Spotlight

On January 1, Indonesia officially began a two-year stint as an elected nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). While the Southeast Asian state is no stranger to advancing its priorities within various multilateral fora, including the UN, the kickoff has nonetheless put the spotlight on the agenda that Jakarta is seeking to pursue.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, third biggest democracy, and largest Muslim-majority nation, has long seen itself as having a significant role in not just its immediate neighborhood in Southeast Asia, but in the wider Asia-Pacific and globally as well. Indonesia has used fora like the UN to promote its diplomatic efforts. Jakarta has been elected as one of 10 nonpermanent members of the UNSC (in addition to the five permanent members) three times – last in 2007-2008 – as part of a rotating pattern of allocations doled out by region.

Indonesia’s campaign for its current stint as nonpermanent member of the UNSC began as early as 2016. Top Indonesian officials, including Vice President Jusuf Kalla, made the case for another term for Jakarta, including its commitment to multilateralism and leadership in several areas including climate change, maritime affairs, counterterrorism, peacekeeping, and human rights. In June 2018, Jakarta secured the position, beating out the Maldives for the Asia-Pacific slot.

As Indonesia has taken its seat as of the beginning of 2019, we have begun to hear more specifics about how Jakarta plans to advance its agenda. In an annual address, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi noted some of the key priorities that Indonesia will seek to advance during its UNSC stint as well as in its foreign policy more generally in 2019.

Unsurprisingly, Marsudi touched on the four broad-brush priorities that Indonesia had earlier set out for its UNSC stint: furthering world peace, including increasing the capacity of UN peacekeeping and promoting women; building synergy between regional organizations and the United Nations; increasing cooperation in the fight against terrorism, extremism, and radicalism; and synergizing efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). These are natural focus areas for Indonesia given its existing contributions, which include being one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces, a traditional leader within Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and a fierce proponent of greater counterterrorism collaboration and climate change support for developing nations.

Marsudi also touched on other priorities that Indonesia will seek to advance in its foreign policy more generally that may also come up during its UNSC stint. These included individual issues such as the Palestine issue, maritime diplomacy, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, including with respect to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

Seasoned observers will have no illusions about Indonesia’s ability to actually achieve the priorities it has set out. As Marsudi herself noted, there are broader global challenges that make advancing multilateral collaboration difficult, including the emergence of what she called “me-first” policies, economic uncertainties, setbacks to and skepticism about democracy as a form of government, as well as the heightening of major power competition, including between the United States and China.

There are also realities with respect to Indonesia itself as an actor. Despite the rhetoric that is heard from Jakarta, the reality is that Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has evinced little interest in multilateralism at the regional and global level, especially relative to his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Indeed, Marsudi herself has come under criticism for not advancing Indonesian foreign policy as far as some of her predecessors had done, including much-needed leadership at the regional level in ASEAN.

Furthermore, in 2019 more particularly, the reality is that Indonesia is in somewhat of a holding pattern for most of the year in terms of foreign policy as it will be consumed by upcoming presidential elections this May. This was reflected in the layout of Marsudi’s speech to a certain extent. Instead of focusing on outlining future-oriented priorities, she first reviewed government achievements over the past four years, consuming most of her remarks.

Of course, that does not mean that Indonesia will not be able to make advances on some of its priorities during its UNSC nonpermanent member stint. Indeed, diplomats have already begun working on Jakarta’s priorities, not just in the UNSC but also at ASEAN and the UN Human Rights Council, where Indonesia is also campaigning for a seat for 2020-2022 period.

It bears noting that even as we hear the continued rhetoric about Indonesia’s goals for its term at the UNSC, realizing these ambitions will likely be a difficult task. With domestic attention consumed by presidential elections and no shortage of obstacles in both the regional and global realms, seizing the opportunities that Jakarta has identified for its term will mean navigating past a range of challenges through 2019 and into 2020.