Introducting Indonesia’s Pacific Elevation

The South Pacific is increasingly becoming an area of interest for larger global powers. While the region may not be of significant economic importance, due to the number of states within it the Pacific is of great diplomatic – and increasingly strategic – importance. With the rise of China, the two traditional local powers – Australia and New Zealand – have realized that maintaining their influence in the Paciifc cannot be taken for granted. Both have taken steps to consolidate their regional positions.

Yet competition for influence in the Pacific is not just about China’s rise and the responses of Canberra and Wellington. Other countries see their own interests reflected in the waters of the Pacific, and are increasingly seeking ways to engage the region. While Australia has its Pacific Step-up, and New Zealand its Pacific Reset, the United Kingdom has its own strategic concept – Pacific Uplift – and in July, Indonesia launched its own attempt at regional influence boosting (and entry for best slogan) with its Pacific Elevation.

For most of the period since gaining its independence from the Dutch, Indonesia has maintained focus on its own internal difficulties. Of necessity, Jakarta has prioritized building a cohesive state out of a vast array of islands, languages, and cultures. Yet as its capabilities have increased, the country has begun to survey its neighborhood, assess its interests, and expand its reach. The Pacific offers an important local outlet for Jakarta’s increasing ambitions, and a test of its increasing strength.

The Pacific also provides Indonesia with a way to leverage the cultural links of its eastern regions as a way of gaining traction. This serves two purposes: Making areas far from the gravity of Java feel appreciated by the Indonesian state, and trying to diminish the support several Melanesian states have provided to the separatist movement in West Papua.

The Indonesian government used its inaugural Pacific Exposition, held in Auckland in mid-July, to test this proposition. Jakarta paid for the travel and expenses of a number of senior Pacific Islands delegates to attend the event. Identifying Indonesia as a state of islands, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi used her opening address to express a natural affinity between her country and the countries of the South Pacific: “We are connecting the dots between the 17,000 Indonesian islands and the thousands of Pacific Islands, Australia, and New Zealand.”

While the Pacific Exposition was pitched as a trade, investment, and tourism forum, and came with projections of new trading opportunities from Indonesia into the South Pacific, it is unlikely that this was the true intent of the gathering.

While the membership application of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to the Melanesian Spearhead Group seems to have stalled due to disagreement over the issue from within the MSG, Jakarta doesn’t seem keen to take this as victory.

Vanuatu’s support for the ULMWP remains steadfast. The country has provided a headquarters for the movement in its capital, and also appointed a special envoy to facilitate relations. During New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ recent trip to Vanuatu, his counterpart in Port Vila, Ralph Reganvanu, made comments that he would like the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to take a stronger stance on self-determination for West Papua. He also called upon Jakarta to honor its invitation for the UN human rights commissioner to visit the province. A delegation from Vanuatu was invited to Indonesia’s Pacific trade exhibition in Auckland, but the offer was declined.

Former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono portrayed the country’s foreign policy as one of “a million friends and zero enemies.” This has created an internationally aloof persona for the country, one that has avoided making too many commitments in order to prevent any difficult entanglements. But with Jakarta’s attempt to reach out into the Pacific it may be starting to push away from this approach. As Indonesia’s power increases, so do its interests and its desire to defend them.

With both Indonesia’s foreign minister and ambassador to New Zealand using recent speeches to insist on their country’s familial links to the Pacific, the Pacific Exposition seemed less of a trade show and more of an attempt by Indonesia to try and win trust. Yet it remains questionable whether attempting to highlight its Melanesian credentials will provide a bridge for understanding between Jakarta and the Pacific, or if it will just bring further attention to the solidarity many Melanesians feel toward provinces such as West Papua. Indonesia’s Pacific Elevation may in fact only elevate the Pacific’s suspicions.