STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi stated that the approval of the Bali Leaders’ Declaration by the G20 leaders has demonstrated the world’s trust in Indonesia. “We should be grateful that all G20 member countries have trust in Indonesia so that in the end, the leaders’ declaration can be agreed upon,” she said at a press conference following the culmination of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Marsudi further revealed that at the beginning of Indonesia’s G20 presidency, many parties were pessimistic about Indonesia producing a declaration considering the difficult global situation, which was triggered by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and made worse by the war between Russia and Ukraine, the food and energy crisis, as well as the financial crisis.
In addition to the 52 paragraphs, the declaration also contains an attachment regarding inclusive recovery efforts and a list of cooperation projects under the G20 mechanism. “So, there are 361 forms of cooperation in the attachment to the declaration. And during its presidency, Indonesia also synergized strengthening cooperation in a bilateral context with the G20 countries in three priority sectors, and there were 140 cooperation programs
President Jokowi and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed five cooperation documents: the Action Plan for joint promotion of the “World Maritime Axis” and “Belt and Road” initiatives; Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the joint development of a center for conservation, research, and innovation of Indonesian-Chinese medicinal plants; MOU on industrial sector vocational training; MOU to increase digital economy cooperation; and an agreement on further expanding and deepening bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
President Jokowi announced that the G20 had agreed to assist poor countries by setting aside $81.6 billion (IDR1,200 trillion) in foreign currency reserve assets. This agreement was reached during the G20 Summit. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated its support for the creation of this Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) scheme.
While President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have eased tensions between their countries, they are vying for influence in Asia and beyond, offering competing stances on how to address poverty and the war in Ukraine. Xi has cast China as a steadfast partner to the region, rejecting what he described as the United States’ “Cold War mentality” of forming security alliances. At the Group of 20 summit, he spoke loftily about China’s “global initiatives” to fight poverty and strife, while remaining publicly vague about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear saber rattling.
The agendas of China and the United States at the summit showed how both powers are courting other nations with dueling priorities and spending programs. That rivalry can sometimes benefit middle powers — like Indonesia, the host country — by generating competition to provide aid and support, but it can also leave them fearful of being squeezed between the jostling giants. Xi used the global platform of the G20 to promote a so-called Global Security Initiative, a vague proposal begun earlier this year to offer China’s solutions to international conflict and threats.
The idea appears to be at least partly driven by the Chinese government’s sensitivity to criticisms that it failed to stand by its declared reverence for sovereignty when Russia invaded Ukraine. Biden, on the other hand, has been eager to reinforce the United States’ traditional leadership, saying on Monday that the United States is more “prepared than any country in the world, economically and politically, to deal with the changing circumstances around the world.”
The United States is pressing China and other G20 members to do more on debt relief for the world’s poorest countries, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. The issue will be highlighted in the final joint statement when the summit in the Indonesian resort island of Bali ends this week, the official said, but there will not be unanimity.
“What you’re going to see in the G20 statement is that 19 members of the G20 came together to say this is a core, first-order issue that we need to take collective action with respect to, and you’ll see that, you know, one country is still blocking progress,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He would not name the hold-out country but this appeared likely to be China, a massive creditor to poor countries around the world in a policy that Western countries have condemned as “debt traps” used to tighten Beijing’s grip on the global economy. The issue “will continue to be a topic of conversation between the United States and China and within the G20,” he said.
International financial institutions and commercial creditors, which are the main creditors of developing countries, should take part in the debt reduction and suspension for developing countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said. The International Monetary Fund should speed up the on-lending of SDRs to low-income countries, Xi said at the G20 summit.
China is implementing the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in all respects, and has suspended the largest amount of debt service payment among all G20 members, Xi said. Meanwhile, China is working with some G20 members on the debt treatment under the Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond the DSSI, thus helping relevant developing countries navigate through the difficult time, Xi said.
As leaders of the world’s largest economies flock to Bali, Indonesia, for the forthcoming Group of 20 (G20) Summit, their different visions of world order and who should write the rules governing the 21st century will be on display.
On one hand are the world’s advanced industrial democracies, seven of which are members of the Group of 7 (G7), a largely transatlantic bloc representing nearly 30 per cent of global GDP. On the other hand is a broad and diverse set of leaders who claim to better represent the majority of the international community, especially in the Global South, and who do not necessarily share the G7’s worldviews.
The G7 is the more coherent grouping. Its leaders are relatively aligned in their perceptions of global challenges, focusing particularly on their strategic competitors/ systemic rivals – Russia and China. In recent months, G7 leaders have asserted that “Russia has violated the international rules-based order” and reaffirmed a “shared commitment to maintaining the rules-based international order, peace, and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
G7 leaders often argue that the current international order derives from a common set of rules embodied in the United Nations Charter. For example, French President Emmanuel Macron has described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a return to imperialism that is “destroying the world order.”
He stresses, “It’s not about choosing a camp between East and West, but the responsibility of everybody to respect the UN Charter.” Similarly, the US National Security Strategy asserts that “The vast majority of countries want a stable and open rules-based order.”
This G20 is more important for the bilateral meetings at the sidelines, especially given its position in the Indo-Pacific, the hotspot for the next global showdown. Indonesia, a secular, multicultural South East Asian power in its own right, is also the most populous Muslim country in the world. The presidency will pass from Indonesia at the end of this summit, to India, the third country by population of Muslims globally and the world’s largest democracy.
The UN predicts that by the next G20 heads of state summit in Delhi, India will surpass China as the world’s most populous country. The cultural crossroads that the world finds itself with Islamic extremism and the imminent threat that democracies perceive in South East Asia due to Chinese aggression are pertinent topics that both India and Indonesia regularly deal with. Indonesia, in its wisdom, has hosted this year’s head of state summit in Bali, a Hindu-majority island in a Muslim-majority secular country.
Some of signing cooperation during G-20 Summit
The United States will support Indonesia in strengthening its maritime surveillance drone programme to secure its coastlines from illegal fishing, the White House said following a bilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo.
Under the newly unveiled cooperation, the US would enable Indonesia’s maritime security agency Bakamla to “procure drones, pilot training, and maintenance that will significantly enhance Bakamla’s capabilities related to maritime domain awareness, maritime law enforcement, and countering illegal fishing”.
“Indonesia is a vibrant and critical, critical partner. As two of the largest democracies in the world, we’re working together to preserve the rule-based system and international order, and to uphold human rights,” Biden said during his meeting with Widodo in Bali ahead of the two-day G20 Summit.
During his bilateral meeting with President Jokowi at the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the planned investment of U.S. companies in Indonesia worth $2.5 billion (IDR38.82 trillion).
The U.S. investment consists of an agreement between ExxonMobil and state oil company Pertamina to establish a regional carbon capture and sequestration center in Indonesia. The investment in reducing carbon emissions is said to provide economic opportunities for Indonesian workers and accelerate the Indonesian government’s goal of reaching Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2060.
A coalition of countries will mobilise $20 billion of public and private finance to help Indonesia shut coal power plants and bring forward the sector’s peak emissions date by seven years to 2030, the United States, Japan and partners said on Tuesday.
The Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), more than a year in the making, “is probably the single largest climate finance transaction or partnership ever,” a Treasury official told reporters.
The Indonesia JETP is based on last year’s $8.5 billion initiative to help South Africa more quickly decarbonise its power sector that was launched at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow by the United States, Britain and European Union;
Amazon Executive Chair Jeff Bezos said at the B20 forum ahead of the G20 Summit that specific steps were needed to put renewable energy in place. Jeff Bezos used Indonesia to demonstrate an example of a country which is taking those necessary steps forward in its pursuit to renewable energy.
He said that Amazon and state electricity company PLN had just agreed to collaborate on the construction of four 210-megawatt utility projects backed by renewable energy in Indonesia. This is the first partnership of its kind for Indonesia. The project in question is the construction of four solar power plant projects on the Java-Madura-Bali network in Java and Bali. Bezos said that Amazon intended to purchase renewable energy for its operations in Indonesia.
Indonesia’s hosting the Group of 20 Summit offers a rare opportunity to showcase the country’s most recent accomplishments on the one hand, and a new momentum to catch up with the rest of the world on the other.
The ministers in the finance and Sherpa tracks, working groups and 10 engagement groups, including Think20 (T20), have reached out to diverse policymaking communities and even segments of the public. Government officials, policy researchers, business leaders and professionals have supplied the G20 process with policy ideas and action plans. We are earnestly hopeful of pleasant surprises that the G20 Summit may present to the world this week in Bali.
Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at the Bloomberg CEO Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali said the Indonesian government has concluded negotiations with the United States. one of the energy transition donor countries in the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The value of the deal is estimated at $15 billion. Luhut said the value extends beyond the amount of funds provided, because JETP can assist developing countries.
The 2022 Ocean 20 world ocean sustainability forum is taking place 14 November, 2022, in Bali, Indonesia at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center. The forum was launched by the government of Indonesia and the World Economic Forum as a private initiative to concentrate global sustainability efforts the world’s marine economy.
The conference had the goal of bringing together world leaders in a shared commitment and ambition to collaborate toward creating a more healthy ocean.The event commenced with dialogues ahead of the G20 Head of State and Government Summit and the consideration of a proposal to form an official G20 Engagement Group.
“Indonesia takes pride in initiating Ocean20. It is part of our commitment to protecting oceans and building a sustainable ocean economy,” Indonesia President Joko Widodo said, We invite all G20 leaders to contribute actively to these critical endeavors, including by allocating necessary means and resources. Let us collaborate to sustain a healthy planet and oceans for the next generations.”
The United States and Indonesia have successfully concluded negotiations to launch a $698 million MCC Compact, supported with $649 million from the United States and $49 million from Indonesia.
The Compact will support the development of high-quality, climate-conscious transportation infrastructure in five provinces; mobilize international capital in support of Indonesia’s development goals, in part by building the capacity of Indonesia’s financial markets; and increase access to finance for Indonesia’s women-owned businesses and micro, small, and medium sized enterprises.
Building on the bilateral Educational Cooperation MOU signed by the United States and Indonesia in December 2021, the United States has now allocated resources for a 30% increase in educational advising centers in Indonesia, which will provide new opportunities for Indonesian students to study in the United States. In addition, Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars and teachers will return to Indonesia in January of 2023, after a multiyear hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency and GE Healthcare announced plans to co-fund a pilot project to support the Indonesian Ministry of Health (MoH) develop a national image and data repository (NIDR), creating a new cloud-based centralized warehouse for electronic medical records and a hub-and-spoke network connecting general practitioners in primary care facilities with cardiologists in a central hospital.
Building on longstanding cooperation between the United States and the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (BAKAMLA), the United States will now support BAKAMLA’s maritime surveillance drone program. U.S. support will enable BAKAMLA to procure drones, pilot training, and maintenance that will significantly enhance BAKAMLA’s capabilities related to maritime domain awareness, maritime law enforcement, and countering illegal fishing.
In partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine and Fisheries Affairs, USAID is launching two new programs that will protect Indonesia’s marine biodiversity and critical mangrove ecosystems by enhancing the sustainable and equitable management of fisheries and Marine Protected Areas, and building the resilience of commercial supply chains and fisheries-dependent communities to the impacts of climate change.
ExxonMobil and Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina have signed a $2.5 billion agreement to further assess the development of regional Carbon Capture and Sequestration Hub in Indonesia. This partnership will enable key industry sectors to decarbonize, including the refining, chemicals, cement, and steel sectors, thereby lowering carbon emissions while creating economic opportunities for Indonesian workers, and this agreement will help Indonesia achieve its net-zero ambitions in 2060 or sooner.
USAID will launch a new initiative to support public-private cooperation to reduce land-based sources of ocean plastics pollution, in line with circular economy principles. USAID will partner with local governments, the private sector, and community groups to promote integrated waste management, thus improving waste collection and treatment and strengthening the value chain for recycling.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency is launching a new partnership with MRT Jakarta, which manages the capital’s public rail system, to support the public transit system’s transition to renewable energy sources.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation will support HDF Energy’s investment in a portfolio of green hydrogen projects in Indonesia called “Renewstable,” which combines renewable energy with battery and green hydrogen backed storage to deliver stable and reliable power to electricity grids.
USAID plans to launch a new partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry on the conservation of orangutans and other vulnerable species such as elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses in Sumatra and Kalimantan. This partnership will improve conservation data collection; facilitate collaboration among local government, the private sector, and communities; and reduce human-wildlife conflict.
The United States and Indonesia committed to partnering to enhance port and fisheries administration in the Pacific. By leveraging Indonesian expertise in port and fisheries administration and logistics, and in concert with Pacific partners, the United States and Indonesia will send technical experts to the region to support critical Pacific port and fishing needs (Toni Ervianto/many sources).
