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Indonesian President Jokowi calls on Asean to be ‘captains of our own ship’ amid big-power rivalry

2023-09-08 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

JAKARTA – Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday called on South-east Asian leaders to become bolder, more agile and devise a long-term tactical plan to address growing global challenges.

Likening Asean to a large ship, Mr Widodo said it has a major responsibility towards the hundreds of millions of people who are sailing together on it.

“And despite having to sail through a storm, we as leaders must ensure that this ship can continue to sail, and we have to be captains of our own ship to achieve peace, to achieve stability, to achieve prosperity together,” he told his counterparts at the start of the plenary session of the 43rd Asean Summit.

Nine South-east Asian leaders, including newly minted Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and prospective member Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, were present.

New Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin did not attend, and was represented instead by Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sarun Charoensuwan.

Myanmar generals, barred from high-level Asean meetings for failing to make concrete progress on a peace plan to end a crisis, did not send a non-political representative.

Earlier, in his opening remarks to kick off the three-day summit from Tuesday to Thursday, Mr Widodo also repeated his consistent message that Asean will not become a proxy for any power and that it will cooperate with anyone for peace and prosperity.

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“Don’t make our Asean ship an arena of rivalry that destroys each other, but make this Asean ship a space to foster cooperation to create prosperity, create stability, create peace that is not only for the region but also for the world,” he said.

Indonesia, this year’s rotating chair of the 10-nation bloc, is facing mounting pressures to resolve the situation in Myanmar, which has sunk into violence following a military coup in 2021, and speed up the negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the disputed South China Sea.

To Asean leaders, Mr Widodo also noted that future challenges “are increasingly difficult and result in a struggle for influence by big power”, but Asean’s unity and centrality are key in addressing this.

Unity does not mean that there will be no differences in opinions, but instead there is harmony in diversity, he said, adding: “Differences in opinions actually nourish democracy and precisely show that we as a family have an equal position.”

He added: “The world’s oceans are too wide to navigate alone. On the way, there will be other ships, Asean’s partner ships. Let us together realise equal and mutually beneficial cooperation to sail together towards the epicentrum of growth.”

Under the theme “Asean Matters: Epicentrum of Growth”, the priorities of the summit are to lay a strong foundation for the grouping’s long-term vision, beef up its resilience in facing the current and future challenges, strengthen its position as an epicentre of growth, and ensure a safe and peaceful Indo-Pacific region.

The three-day talks will kick off with the plenary and retreat sessions of the Asean Summit, and other high-level meetings with dialogue partners including the East Asia Summit and the Asean Plus Three Summit.