Pursuing Indonesia’s national interest in the ASEAN Community will be the hardest challenge faced by the new Indonesian foreign minister, according to former foreign minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Tue, October 28 2014, 11:15 AM
Pursuing Indonesia’s national interest in the ASEAN Community will be the hardest challenge faced by the new Indonesian foreign minister, according to former foreign minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda.
Hassan, who served the Foreign Ministry’s top diplomat from 2001 to 2009, said the ASEAN Community had become a big project for its member states and it had to take place on time, with a deadline of December 2015.
Under the concept of the ASEAN Community, ASEAN, which was established on Aug. 8, 1967, will become a single community of nations.
The region will transform into a single political-security community, economic community and socio-cultural community. Such a transformation will be marked as a historical milestone because ASEAN will become a community with one vision and one identity.
“To make the ASEAN Community happen is not easy. However, the new Indonesian foreign minister has to make it become reality,” Hassan told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Hassan said the new foreign minister had to increase communication with ministers from other countries in ASEAN regarding the preparation for entering the ASEAN Community.
He said that Indonesia, as the leader of ASEAN, had to provide a clear idea and concept of the ASEAN Community, tasks that should be shouldered by the new foreign minister.
“The new minister must also to ensure that other countries accept such ideas and concepts,” he said.
Once the ASEAN Community started, the new foreign minister had to ensure that Indonesia did not only become a market for other countries, adding there were now huge opportunities as Indonesia had been recognized by the international community as one of the world’s major countries due to its rising economic power.
“International acceptance is a big asset for Indonesia. [A long time ago] Indonesia did not have such an asset. Other countries will hear us. We can partner easily with many countries, ranging from northern countries, southern countries, developed countries and developing countries,” he said.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated former Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi as the new foreign minister on Monday. Retno is the first woman to fill the post and she replaces Marty Natalegawa.
Prior to Retno’s appointment, Hassan said that he would fully support the new foreign minister, as long as he or she was a career diplomat. (alz)
