Conference "What place for Indonesia on the international stage?", November 30 at 6:30pm

Wednesday, November 30 at 6:30pm
Auditorium de l'Inalco
65, rue des Grands Moulins
75013 Paris
Live on YouTube Live

Registration required to take part in face-to-face or distance learning sessions.

On November 15 and 16, Indonesia hosts the G20 summit, the intergovernmental forum that annually brings together the 19 most developed countries and the European Union, their heads of state and government, finance ministers and central bank chiefs. It was inevitable that the 2022 edition would be marked by the war in Ukraine: rejecting the West's injunctions, Indonesian President Joko Widodo decided to invite his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the same table as Joe Biden, in the company of Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron and the other leaders of the group's countries.

Earlier this year, on June 29 and 30, the man nicknamed "Jokowi" went on a mission to Kiev and Moscow, posing as a mediator - with more than mixed success. Although Indonesia called for the withdrawal of Russian forces by voting in favor of the UN resolution of March 2, the country's economic and political interests, as well as the strong anti-Western sentiment of its population, tend to tip the diplomatic balance in favor of supporting Putin.

Yet Jakarta cultivates its military relations with Washington. On August 14, the joint military exercises that Indonesia organizes annually with the United States, this time on such a scale that they strongly resemble a line of containment against China. Jakarta is also cooperating with South Korea on the development of a fighter aircraft, the KF-21 Boramae. How can we understand Indonesia's arms-buying policy?

Economic and commercial considerations have not turned Indonesia away from China, far from it. A case in point is the Chinese construction of the first high-speed train in the Indonesian archipelago, which will link Jakarta and Bandung, and is due to start operating in June 2023.

This conference will identify Indonesia's current international position and how it sees its role on the world stage, with a particular focus on the G20 summit. What do we need to understand about Indonesia's strategy, which has been marked by non-alignment since 1961? How do geo-economic issues influence Jakarta's foreign policy?

Speakers :

• Delphine Allès, professor of political science at Inalco, where she heads the international department, specialist in Indonesia and international relations in Southeast Asia.
• Anda Djoehana Wiradikarta, teacher-researcher at Université Paris-Est Créteil, specialist in Indonesia.
• Hubert Testard, teacher at Sciences Po, specialist in Asia and international economic issues, former economic and financial advisor in the French embassies in China, Japan, Korea and Singapore for ASEAN.

Moderator:

• Cyrielle Cabot, journalist at Asianyst and France 24.

Co-organizers: Inalco and Asialyst.com, the news and analysis website on all of Asia
Contact: contact@asialyst.com