Ambassador Baas, Indonesia has just taken over the Chair of ASEAN. What is on the agenda?
Indonesia has set itself some ambitious objectives for its ASEAN chairmanship in 2011. The focus is on a further internal strengthening of the organization on the basis of the 2008 ASEAN Charter and the agreements reached under the Vietnamese chairmanship in 2010. Under the motto “ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations”, the Indonesian government is also striving to improve the coordination of ASEAN members’ global engagement on such issues as climate change and UN peacekeeping missions, and to create a common platform for responses to similar major challenges. The joint appeal of the first informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers chaired by Indonesia in Lombok on 16 and 17 January 2011 for the lifting of the sanctions imposed by the international community against member state Myanmar shows that ASEAN is able to articulate its views with speed, solidarity and determination. A particularly important aspect of Indonesia’s ASEAN presidency in 2011 will be staging the first East Asian Summit also to be attended by the United States and Russia. Important agreements on this were already reached during the Vietnamese presidency, and suggest that ASEAN continues to play a key role in the project to build an Asian-Pacific architecture.
Is the development of the European Union (EU) useful as a model for ASEAN?
As ASEAN’s Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan recently said, the European Union provides inspiration and examples that can guide decision-makers in Southeast Asia, who can also learn valuable lessons for the region from the EU’s experience and successes. However, the EU is not an appropriate model. ASEAN is expected to remain a fundamentally intergovernmental community for the foreseeable future, and this is the main difference from the EU. This does not diminish its importance for us, since the emerging common economic area incorporating some 570 million people offers a further great opportunity for our economy alongside China and India. And the ASEAN member states have fascinating cultural characteristics and strengths that complement each other and make them highly interesting.
The ASEAN countries are more heterogeneous than the EU. Which country or countries do you believe can have the kind of powerhouse function attributed to Germany or France in the EU?
Indonesia is the most populous member state with its 237 million inhabitants. After India and the USA it is the third-largest democracy in the world and also a member of the G20. The country certainly plays an important role in ASEAN and has repeatedly used its influence to initiate progress towards greater cohesion. It has great potential for making an impact. Many other ASEAN countries, including Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam, have also demonstrated considerable creative strength in the history of ASEAN, contributing to its unique weight in the region. The 2010 Vietnamese presidency is justly regarded as having been very successful, by the way.
ASEAN is becoming increasingly important between China and India. At the Asia-Pacific Conference in 2010 the ASEAN countries demonstrated a completely new self-confidence. Is ASEAN developing its own way of doing things?
The Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business put the issue of Southeast Asia onto the agenda of its Singapore conference in May 2010, and this initiative met with a very positive response. Southeast Asia, which is held together by ASEAN, is indeed increasingly developing into the third centre of growth in Asia. At the same time self-confidence has been growing in the countries of the region. Politically, with developments in the Asia-Pacific summit process, ASEAN has proved its ability to direct, its “centrality”, alongside not only China and India, but also Japan, Korea and Australia.
To return to your host country: Germany’s Federal Foreign Office sees Indonesia as having a leadership role to play in the development of relations between Europe and Asia. What might this role look like?
Since 1998 Indonesia has developed from an authoritarian system into a stable and vibrant democracy. The country’s economic prospects are now regarded as promising by virtually all the analysts. We share many common values. At the same time Indonesia is developing a more assertive foreign policy and offering its own ideas to harmonize Asian, Pacific, European and non-aligned countries’ interests. Against this background we are working very well together in European-Asian fora, particularly in ASEM, but also, for example, at the United Nations and the G20. Furthermore, at the G20 Indonesia always makes sure that the interests of the other ASEAN member states are not ignored. I am confident that the weight and commitment of Indonesia’s foreign policy will grow in future.
What characterizes German-Indonesian relations?
German-Indonesian relations have traditionally been very close and dynamic. I am repeatedly surprised at how many Indonesians in leading positions speak German and feel a common bond with us. This applies to politics – we need only to think of the former President Habibie, who fostered close relations with Germany – but also to civil society. Many Indonesians have lived, studied and perhaps married in Germany, and many Germans also feel attracted to this culturally and religiously diverse island nation – for a wide variety of reasons. They all feel very comfortable in Indonesia. Germans and Indonesians are thus closely linked on various levels. At the same time, the country – and too little attention is paid to this aspect in my opinion – has the largest Muslim majority population in the world! Indonesia is therefore also an important partner in our dialogue with the Muslim world.////
Interview: Martin Orth
