The presidential trip to Japan, which started on 29 March and is scheduled to conclude on 31 March, is a significant development in relation to President  Prabowo Subianto’s foreign policy. The presidential trip is aimed at strengthening Indonesia’s role in the Indo-Pacific region, which is becoming increasingly unstable and competitive. The tour appears to have three main components: modernising the military, realising the goal of a high-growth economic trajectory, and ensuring stability in the region. The key challenge is to ensure that Indonesia is able to maintain its strategic autonomy while pursuing a multi-vector foreign policy. The president’s visit to Japan at the end of his tour suggests that the president has attempted to pursue a foreign policy agenda that aspires to turn Indonesia into a major power in a new regional order where middle powers play a more active role.

Indonesia is attempting to modernise its military, but its procurement processes are disjointed, and it doesn’t really have a defence strategy. Japan is also updating its defence strategy to take into account increased coercion in the maritime domain, and is looking to strengthen security ties with other countries in the Indo-Pacific, including Indonesia, which offers significant opportunities for cooperation.

Japan has far better technology, surveillance systems, and a far more professional military. Indonesia has long wanted to achieve those things itself, but so far has not managed. Indonesia is also a key country for Japan’s effort to develop the Indo-Pacific under the banner of a “free and open” maritime strategy. With cooperation in the area of marine surveillance, joint military training, and the production of defence-related products, in the context of Prabowo’s visit, Indonesia can at last........

© Eurasia Review