Assessing Indonesia's Peacemaking Efforts in Pre-G20 Summit: Did It Work or Fail?

For the first time in history, Indonesia holds the G20 (Group of Twenty) presidency, a cooperation forum of the world’s top 20 economies which will take place in Bali, Indonesia on November 15-16 this year.

Even with many months to go before the G20 Summit, President Joko Widodo is doing his very best in inviting state leaders to physically attend the much anticipated meeting. 

Last June, President Widodo visited Kiev and Moscow in an attempt to serve as a mediator between the Russo-Ukrainian war and also in hopes for the two leaders, Putin and Zelenskyy, to be present in the upcoming G-20 forum as this could serve as a venue for dialogue on having a ceasefire which may result to stopping the increasing global inflation and food shortages. The Ukrainian president is one of the guest invitees of the said summit.

If ever both leaders will attend in Bali, this would be the first time that both leaders will sit at the same table after the war began, face-to-face. This will be of course a mission-accomplished moment for Widodo as Indonesia always takes pride in being neutral or having a ‘friend to all, enemy to none’ foreign policy. Because at the end of the day, this could be a chance for peace or at least a new phase for negotiations.

Although we might forget that other expected participating leaders would be around too like Biden, Xi Jinping and also some representatives from the European Union that could ignite the tension. Ever since Russia conducted the special military operation in Eastern Ukraine, most of the countries (particularly U.S. Western allies) have demanded the exclusion of the Russian president from the G20. Biden and his allies even emphasized the need to arrest Putin for his atrocious war crimes and invasion in Ukraine.

This is the reason why Putin will not attend the summit but would only rather send his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy stated that he will not attend the summit in case Putin attends. It seems that Jokowi’s meeting with both leaders months ago has been nothing but abysmal since the dominoes are starting to fall with only weeks to go before the much awaited intergovernmental forum.

During Widodo’s meeting with Putin last June, the Russian leader raised Soviet’s assistance to Indonesia in the early days of independence in building important projects ranging from infrastructures, industrial facilities, hospitals and other important institutions. 

This is like a slap in the face of Widodo in trying to reach out to Russia and having the guts to question its operations and military build-up when in fact it is the Soviet who helped Indonesia in establishing the state and positioning itself in the international arena.

This condescending point of view is also used by Russia among countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, as it always has this habit of refusing the agency of formerly Soviet-aligned states. This is not to say that other hegemonic powers in the West are unlike Russia as they also push for further influence and control among their formerly colonized countries.

Moreover, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with more than $27 billion in arms and weapons transfers ever since the war started, including an additional $400 million as announced last Friday. As Putin seems to have no plans in pulling out his troops any soon as he continues to drop bombs in Kiev, Zelenskyy has no business conceding especially with the technical support it is receiving from the U.S., Germany, France, to name a few countries.

Indonesia has really been a productive broker in mediating conflicts in Southeast Asia, mainly because Jakarta is labeled as the center of ASEAN leadership. The much-prolonged Cambodia-Vietnam war which ended in 1989 allowed Indonesia to become a peace negotiator signifying that an inter-state conflict would impact the region’s stability and security.

Indonesia also played a role in the signing of a peace agreement between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996. These attempts are manifestations of Indonesia’s commitment to peace and order and impartiality. 

Although the East Timorese people would say otherwise as we may easily forget in memory how hundreds of thousands of Indonesian troops and paramilitary gangs have carried out waves of violence to impede Timor Leste’s independence in 2002.

Of course, resolving peace talks in regional conflicts is a much easier task than playing the mediator role of the Russo-Ukrainian war which resulted in a shift in the geopolitical landscape. Not only are the above-mentioned regional conflicts poles apart as compared with the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine but it is certain that Indonesia lacks political will on the international stage in using their neutral and impartial brand to a diplomatic advantage.

Acting as an honest and compassionate broker in the name of world peace is not enough reason for hegemonic powers to rule out national interests. For the past decade, Indonesia has been using the passive middleman facade in hopes of avoiding a security dilemma.

For example, Widodo would reiterate that Indonesia had no part in the maritime tension between China and the U.S. in the South China Sea except that the two economic powers continue to invest in Indonesia amounting to $40 billion and $9 billion, respectively.

The obvious hesitance of the third world’s biggest democracy to step up on the international stage is an opportunity lost. Indonesia is also set to become the fifth biggest economy in 2024. So what is stopping Indonesia from at least emerging as a leader outside of its region?

That is why the stakes for the next Indonesian presidential election are at an all-time high. The next leader of this much diverse country must carry the Monas torch not only in the region but also to bring some light to the forever anarchic global order. Let us stop putting a peacemaker badge just for the sake of escaping pressures.

Indonesia has much potential and a lot to give to the world. It is only us that is stopping ourselves.