Indonesia Hopes Big Countries Shun Ego to Cooperate

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Bambang Brodjonegoro, co-chair of Think-20 (T20) Indonesia.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, as the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, the world still needs to work together to bring the pandemic truly to an end and restore the pandemic-impacted global economy, which has been exacerbated by the disruptions in the global supply chain due to armed conflict.

Bambang Brodjonegoro, co-chair of Think-20 (T20) Indonesia said the pandemic had held back the growth of the economy and that international cooperation was the main prerequisite for recovery. “To recover from the negative impacts of the pandemic requires global cooperation. There is no other way," he said in Jakarta on Thursday (15/9/2022).

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T20 is a communication forum for the Group of 20 (G20), bringing together leading global think tanks and study centers.

As the rotating president of this year's G20, Indonesia is looking to ramp up global cooperation among countries in various sectors.

KOMPAS/SEKAR GANDHAWANGI

The G20 Orchestra premiered at Lumbini Park, Borobudur Temple area, Magelang, Central Java on Monday (12/9/2022).

The main challenge in encouraging global cooperation is the simmering rivalries among big countries arising from the ongoing change in geopolitics, which makes it difficult to bring them together for dialog.

A series of initial meetings held in the lead-up to the next G20 summit in Bali has shown ego-motivated frictions. In such a situation, Indonesia continues to try to convince the big countries that they need to sit together to cooperate, regardless of their worldview and geopolitical policies.

Australia's senior economist Peter Drysdale sees G20 as an opportunity for Indonesia to directly mobilize the world to cooperate in the global economic recovery. The G20 presidency is seen as capital for Indonesia to further prove its leadership credentials that has been recognized not only among developing countries for its neutrality in political alignment but also member countries of the ASEAN.

Indonesia is considered to have no harbored agenda other than representing the interests of developing countries affected by the pandemic.

Indonesia, according to Drysdale, has diplomatic weight to communicate with democratic or non-populist countries. Indonesia is considered to have no harbored agenda other than representing the interests of developing countries affected by the pandemic.

Developing countries

Bambang said developing and low-income countries would need more attention in the narratives of global issues that were still dominated by the interests of wealthy countries in Europe and North America.

The communication forums and study institutes in the Group of 7 (G7) advanced economy countries make recommendations with the interests of the G7. "What they present does not reflect the interests of developing and low-income countries," Bambang said.

Developing and low-income countries are vulnerable to crises with them becoming the most affected. "Therefore, it is important to increase the representation of the Southern voice [southern hemisphere countries] to ensure that the growing global narratives provide justice for all governments," he said.

MARINA EKATARI

President Joko Widodo spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (28/4/2022).

The G7 sanctions on Russia, which has caused an escalation in energy prices, are considered to be interfering with international trade. Bambang hoped that the sanctions would be stopped or reduced. “The war in Ukraine must also stop,” he said.

Alicia Garcia Herrero, an economist at the Bruegel Institute, said the war had been hampering global recovery, with various important commodities from Russia and Ukraine being prevented from entering the market. Disruptions in commodity supply from Kyiv and Moscow have contributed to inflation in a number of countries. Europe and the US have recorded the highest inflation in the last 40 years.

Developing and poor countries are becoming more depressed. Their fiscal capacity is increasingly strained. They are not only lacking revenues from taxes, but are also facing constraints to procure new loans. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports show many developing countries have the potential to default with their bonds rating continuing to decline.

In this complicated situation, Germany and other countries in the European Union can play their mitigation role through mediation in the Russia-Ukraine war. "We [Europe] cannot ask [United States President Joe] Biden to act on behalf of Europe. Europe acts for itself and its people," German Institute for Development and Sustainability (IDOS) Director Anna-Katharina Hornidge said.

This approach translates into closing borders and increasing the defense spending budget.

She criticized the use of what she called as a narrow concept of security, in which policymakers viewed security only with an approach of military might. This approach translates into closing borders and increasing the defense spending budget. The concept of security, she said, should be expanded into smoothing the supply of food and energy because thriving economic growth could also help bring security.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Dian Revindo, an economist at the University of Indonesia, expressed his confidence about global cooperation based on the increase in global trade in 2021. He said International trade was engaged in cross-border cooperation. Another form of cooperation, he said, was global value chain (GVC) related trade, which accounted for up to 70 percent of global trade.

He said the GVC concept of trade became the subject of scrutiny because of the prospects of profit shares being unfairly distributed. The resource-owning countries potentially become less benefited than their trade partners, who own capital and processing technology. This condition needs to be addressed. (MHD/RAZ)

(This article was translated by Musthofid)