From Indonesia to the World

During a discussion organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies Singapore early this year, I had a chance to talk with United States’ former secretary of state Michael Pompeo. I poked him with a question about his hopes for the Group of 20 Summit to be hosted in Indonesia.

Pompeo said it would not be an easy call to produce an agreement in the midst of a tense global situation. The war in Ukraine, which broke out on 24 Feb., was predicted to become the biggest drawback.

“It is definitely not easy for Indonesia. Anyway, good luck to Indonesia," said the former US secretary of state during the Trump administration.

In the midst of an increasingly uncertain situation — with the COVID-19 pandemic having yet to be completely over, the geopolitical crisis resulting in financial adversities due to soaring energy and food prices and the threat of climate change looming largely — many people doubted the Bali G20 Summit would bring any major breakthroughs. The widening polarization arising from the rivalries between the West and Russia, China and India raised concerns that the summit might not be fully attended by 20 members.

The G20 Summit in Italy in the previous year was distracted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with all preparatory meetings organized virtually. Only the head-of-state summit was held face-to-face.

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However, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, since receiving the baton of leadership from Italian President Mario Draghi in November 2021, spread an air of optimism. Taking over the rotating G20 presidency, Indonesia adopted the big theme "Recover Together, Recover Stronger." The President ordered that preparatory meetings be held face-to-face in all major cities across the country.

Appointed as coordinators of the sherpa track meetings were Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo were coordinators for the financial track, while Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut B Pandjaitan was chief organizer. The three major agendas offered by Indonesia in the G20 Summit were health, the digital economy and green energy.

As chair of the Global Governance Group (3G), which is a group of 30 small and medium-sized countries not being members of the G20, regularly invited the troika – the term referring to three countries that last served, are currently serving and will serve the G20 presidency – to explain G20 activities. In November 2021, I was invited, along with Saudi Arabia and Italian ambassadors, to talk about the agenda for the Indonesian G20 presidency.

Right after Indonesia took over the G20 presidency, the sherpa team prepared the work agenda for the year-long leadership. In a meeting chaired by Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakhrisnan, I presented the G20 agenda in detail and the ambassadors of 3G countries expressed their appreciation for the efforts Indonesia had been carrying out in its G20 presidency.

Proactive approaches

That the G20 Summit produced the Bali Declaration might come beyond the expectations of many countries in the world. The main key to the accomplished mission lay in Indonesia's proactive approaches. The President, coordinators of the sherpa and financial tracks, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), were all actively engaging in road shows to communicate Indonesia's readiness to host the G20 and the Business 20.

State officials and diplomats in Singapore believed the Bali G20 Summit would make a successful gathering with no boycott. They became more convinced after President Jokowi met in person with the Ukrainian president, the Russian president and the Chinese president ahead of the G20 Summit. "Only President Jokowi has met with the president of Ukraine, the president of Russia and the president of China this year. This is an extraordinary achievement," Mexican Ambassador Agustin Garcia-Lopez said.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi made trips to all G20 member countries to lobby them all to come and sit together to find solutions to the world’s problems. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and BI Governor Perry Wardjiyo made optimal use of their meetings in the world's monetary and financial sector to warn them about the urgency to save the global economy over political interests.

On her way home from the World Bank and IMF meeting in Washington on 29 April, Sri Mulyani told us how she reminded her fellow G20 finance ministers about the ideals in the establishment of the G20 forum. The G20, which had initially been a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors, was upgraded into a heads of state summit following the financial crisis in the US in 2008, which finally became a global financial crisis.

“I said ‘if G20 is considered irrelevant anymore and [they] want it to disband it, so be it’. However, I warned them about the threat that a financial crisis could occur any time. If we disband the G20 Summit now, it would be difficult for us to find a forum for world leaders to meet when a crisis emerges," Sri Mulyani said while transiting in Singapore.

Being provided with an explanation on the three agendas prepared by Indonesia, the world communities were increasingly convinced of Indonesia's seriousness in the worldview for the sake of an improved world.

After chairing a work group meeting between Indonesia and Singapore in June, Airlangga Hartarto had no hesitation to brief the ambassadors of 3G member countries about diplomacy being canvassed by Indonesia for the success of the Bali G20 Summit. Being provided with an explanation on the three agendas prepared by Indonesia, the world communities were increasingly convinced of Indonesia's seriousness in the worldview for the sake of an improved world.

In his closing speech at the Bali G20 Summit, President Jokowi pointed out that the G20 was a forum to find solutions to the world economy and that conflicting political views should be put aside.

The business community was given a wide space in their role to contribute to the improvement of the world economy. World Economic Forum president Klaus Schwab said the role of entrepreneurs was important to execute political decisions. The B20 meetings, which were convened in the lead up to the G20 Summit, were able to lure several world leaders and entrepreneurs to come. The B20 meetings went smoothly, thanks to Kadin for its road show in 16 countries, calling world business circles to envision ways to help the world out of various pressing problems.

Mutual cooperation

With gotong royong (mutual cooperation) being the nation’s basic value ​​prioritized in social interactions, it is the spirit of this basic value that Indonesia is now promoting to the world community. Only with the collaboration of all nations will the world be able to weather the threat of a full-scale storm (a perfect storm) ahead.

Never before has the world been faced with simultaneously ravaging multi-crisis as today. While still staggering from the health resilience-impacted COVID-19 pandemic and struggling to recover from economic downturn, countries now have to cope with the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war.

As a result, inflation in many countries, including developed countries, is soaring.

The war in Europe’s mainland has affected the scarcity of food and energy. African countries are even facing the threat of starvation because of the disruption in the supply of wheat from Ukraine. The food and energy scarcity have escalated the prices of these two important commodities. As a result, inflation in many countries, including developed countries, is soaring.

The world's central banks have raised their interest rates to put inflation under check. The US is the most aggressive country in raising interest rates to bring down the inflation from around 8 percent to 2 percent. With countries competing to lower the interest rate, the world is feared to enter a recession. Unemployment, which has increased due to the pandemic, could increase further because of the impending financial crisis.

At the same time, all countries are being told to reduce gas emissions to prevent air pollution from worsening due to climate change. This requires a large investment, especially to develop new and renewable energy.

The G20 Bali Summit appears to be very encouraging because it contributes to preventing the perfect storm from turning into a catastrophe for the world. In Bali, Indonesia played its role in helping appease political tensions by bringing together President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping. The meeting of the two superpower leaders, which has been unprecedented since Biden became president, was expected to unravel tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

The presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who did not force a walkout by Western countries, allowed the Bali Declaration to be adopted by all countries. Seventeen world leaders were able to meet each other in a fluid and amiable manner, either multilaterally or bilaterally, which was a positive signal for world improvement given the statistics that G20 member countries combine to account for over 80 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The Bali Declaration is certainly not the end result we were aiming for. However, it serves as the capital for 20 major world economies to create a better climate for us all to resist the perfect storm.

The G20 has agreed to establish the Pandemic Fund, strengthen digitalization, develop clean energy, draw up the concept of a food security system, as well as cooperation in trade, investment, industry and employment.

This is an extraordinary contribution from Indonesia to the world.

METRO TV

Suryopratomo

Suryopratomo, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Singapore

(This article was translated by Musthofid)