VZCZCXRO5488
OO RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHJA #0206/01 0480931
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 170931Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4501
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0101
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000206 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, SCA/AF 
NSC FOR J.BADER AND D.WALTON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2020 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS ID XE AF
SUBJECT: FOREIGN MINISTER OUTLINES PRIORITIES, INCLUDING 
DEEPENED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNITED STATES 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Cameron R. Hume, reasons 1.4 (b+d). 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  In a speech on February 16, Foreign 
Minister Marty Natalegawa outlined a range of priorities 
based on the "democratization of Indonesia's foreign policy." 
 In addition to promoting international peace and security, 
Indonesian diplomacy would focus on supporting economic 
development.  Natalegawa explained that Jakarta would 
continue to use soft power to advance its interests and 
sought to turn emerging challenges like climate change into 
opportunities for global leadership.  He said that Indonesia 
wanted a greater international role but remained grounded in 
Southeast Asia.  Regarding United States-Indonesia relations 
Natalegawa said that "the best is yet to come," and that 
President Obama's visit would give the relationship greater 
momentum.  However, Natalegawa's speech lacked specifics on 
U.S.-Indonesia ties, and the GOI appears concerned with 
managing expectations in advance of the visit.  END SUMMARY. 
 
THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF FOREIGN POLICY 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Indonesia's foreign policy must support the 
country's development priorities and provide benefits to 
ordinary Indonesians, FM Natalegawa explained during a 
February 16 speech before an audience of journalists and 
diplomats at the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club. 
Natalegawa said this sensitivity to popular concerns had 
created three key priorities for Indonesian foreign policy 
during President Yudhoyono's second term: 
 
-- Prosperity:  Indonesian diplomats must enhance their 
efforts to promote prosperity by encouraging foreign 
investment, tourism, opportunities for Indonesian workers, 
and the export of Indonesian products. 
 
-- Justice:  Indonesian diplomats would strengthen their 
focus on consular work, particularly protecting the rights of 
Indonesian migrant workers. 
 
-- Democracy:  As a consequence of the country's democratic 
reforms, Indonesians expected their diplomats to promote 
democracy abroad.  The Bali Democracy Forum was one example 
of how the GOI was pursuing this goal.  However, that 
Indonesian democracy promotion efforts would be "quiet and 
modest." 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The democratization of foreign policy extended to 
process as well as substance, Natalegawa said.  GOI policy 
makers must engage a greater range of stakeholders on foreign 
policy issues, including the legislature, non-governmental 
organizations and other civil society groups.  In a nod to 
his audience, Natalegawa pledged greater transparency and 
openness to the media.  These efforts, he explained, were 
critical for explaining GOI foreign policy to the public and 
for building support for the administration's approach. 
 
PROMOTING PEACE AND SECURITY 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Indonesia would seek to play a greater role 
promoting international peace and security, Natalegawa 
explained, as he outlined several examples.  President 
Yudhoyono wants Indonesia to make a positive contribution in 
Afghanistan although Natalegawa cautioned that such a 
contribution would be modest.  While he did not announce any 
specific initiatives, Natalegawa said that Indonesia would 
listen to Afghan needs and do what it could.  He noted the 
importance of helping the Afghan government ensure security 
and said that Indonesia could help facilitate reconciliation 
between the GOA and elements of the Taliban. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Under the rubric of "more statecraft and less 
stagecraft" Natalegawa outlined a range of other areas of 
Indonesian priorities on the peace and security front. 
Indonesia remained committed to providing capacity building 
assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to 
prepare the PA for eventual statehood.  Indonesian diplomats 
sought to play a low-key role in helping solve regional 
conflicts, including the insurgencies in southern Thailand 
and the southern Philippines. Indonesia also wanted to help 
resolve the ongoing border tensions between Thailand and 
Cambodia. 
 
CONTINUED USE OF SOFT POWER 
 
¶6.  (SBU) FM Natalegawa said the Yudhoyono administration 
 
JAKARTA 00000206  002 OF 003 
 
 
planned to continue using soft power to promote Indonesia's 
interests.  He pointed to the many interfaith dialogues that 
Indonesia has organized together with international partners, 
including the United States.  Indonesia saw itself as a 
bridge between civilizations linking the Muslim world with 
the West by demonstrating the compatibility of Islam, 
democracy and modernity.  This approach would, Natalegawa 
explained, help Indonesia realize President Yudhoyono's goal 
of "a thousand friends and zero enemies." 
 
TACKLING EMERGING PROBLEMS 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Indonesian policymakers are also increasingly 
focused on emerging threats that transcend national borders. 
Natalegawa cited food, water and energy security, climate 
change and emerging diseases as examples of such challenges. 
Indonesia sought to turn these challenges into opportunities. 
 Natalegawa said that Indonesian efforts had put 
deforestation on the international climate change agenda. 
With its vast forest reserves, Indonesia now had an 
opportunity to influence the global discussion on this issue. 
 
 
SEEKING GREATER REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Turning to Indonesia's regional role, Natalegawa 
said that ASEAN remained central to Indonesian foreign 
policy.  Jakarta remained committed to strengthening ASEAN in 
the political/security, economic, and socio-cultural realms. 
The challenge for ASEAN members now was to find ways to use 
the institutions that the regional organization had built. 
While Indonesia wanted to lead ASEAN on issues like democracy 
and human rights, Natalegawa cautioned that other member 
states must be willing to follow.  This dynamic was 
especially notable in dealing with Burma.  While Indonesia 
sought to promote reform there, it had to tread carefully in 
order not to alienate other ASEAN member states. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Natalegawa cast a somewhat skeptical eye toward 
discussions of Asian regional architecture.  He said that 
Indonesia continued to study recent Australian and Japanese 
proposals for new regional structures.  However, Natalegawa 
cautioned against putting too much faith in any one 
arrangement.  An Asian community was "inevitable," he 
explained, but it was premature to determine exactly what 
form such a community would take. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Natalegawa explained that Indonesia would look to 
go beyond ASEAN and wanted to play a leading role in other 
international fora, particularly the G20, United Nations and 
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).  Within the G20 
context, Indonesia would try to serve as a bridge between 
developed and developing countries as well as between the 
West and the Muslim world.  He also said that Indonesia was 
closely following the process of UN reform and would consider 
pressing for membership in a reformed Security Council. 
 
THE BEST IS YET TO COME WITH THE UNITED STATES 
 
¶11.  (SBU) In response to a question about President Obama's 
upcoming visit, FM Natalegawa said that "the best is yet to 
come" in U.S.-Indonesia relations.  He explained that 
Indonesia's democratic reforms allowed for a deeper 
relationship than was possible under Jakarta's past 
authoritarian governments.  The United States and Indonesia 
had gotten past the point where differences over a single 
issue could paralyze the entire relationship.  Given this 
progress, Natalegawa noted, both governments had to modernize 
the bilateral relationship and give it more momentum. 
President Obama's visit would, he explained, provide such 
momentum. 
 
¶11.  (C) While he struck a largely positive tone on 
U.S.-Indonesia relations, FM Natalegawa's speech included few 
specifics.  He acknowledged the importance of the 
Comprehensive Partnership but did not mention any specific 
bilateral policy initiatives.  Natalegawa struck a more 
positive tone on regional issues.  He praised United 
States-Indonesia cooperation promoting democracy in Southeast 
Asia and chided those who said that the United States did not 
play enough of a role in the region.  As reflected in 
Natalegawa's speech, the GOI appears to be setting the stage 
for a successful presidential visit by managing expectations. 
 As the Minister noted, U.S.-Indonesian relations are 
starting from a relatively low level and have nowhere to go 
 
JAKARTA 00000206  003 OF 003 
 
 
but up. 
 
 
HUME