Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Southeast Asia diverges as Trump’s Board of Peace meets, Thailand announces a governing coalition, a Malaysian anti-corruption commission is accused of corporate blackmail, and Indonesia cracks down on illegal trade in babies.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Southeast Asia diverges as Trump’s Board of Peace meets, Thailand announces a governing coalition, a Malaysian anti-corruption commission is accused of corporate blackmail, and Indonesia cracks down on illegal trade in babies.

Southeast Asia Torn Over Trump’s Board of Peace

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is due to hold its inaugural meeting on Wednesday in Washington. Three Southeast Asian nations—Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam—are due to attend. The rest of the region is steering clear.

Indonesia is an interesting case. President Prabowo Subianto will attend the meeting and has offered to send up to 8,000 troops to act as peacekeepers in Gaza. Some 1,000 will be ready to deploy by April, with the rest ready by June.

Prabowo is keen to build Indonesia’s profile on the world stage and sees peacekeeping as a path to this. Back in 2022 as defense minister he even offered a peace plan for Ukraine. And an offer of Indonesian peacekeepers for various conflicts was central to his speech at the U.N.  General Assembly last year.

Gaza seems to have gained his particular attention. Since Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, the symbolic weight of the conflict may be one reason. Prabowo’s desire to butter up Trump as he looks to finalize Indonesia’s trade deal with the United States might be another.

There are pros to Prabowo’s peacekeeping proposal.

Indonesia has experience deploying troops on such missions, including in the Middle East. Its first deployment was to Egypt in 1956 following the Suez crisis, and some 1,000 Indonesian troops are currently stationed on the Israel-Lebanon border.

The move also brings big political risks.

Some think that it risks damaging Indonesia’s traditional nonbloc diplomacy. More viscerally, the Palestinian cause is immensely popular in Indonesia, while Israel—with which Indonesia still does not have diplomatic relations—is reviled.

Prabowo’s plans have sparked criticism that he is soft on Israel. If Indonesian troops are seen as failing to protect Palestinians or instead protecting Israel, expect a sharp backlash.

Indonesia’s government has sought to reassure the public. Indonesian troops, it declared, will be in Gaza only in a humanitarian role: protecting civilians, providing aid, and training local police.

Prabowo has also reportedly said that Indonesia will leave the board if it fails to pursue Palestinian freedom, which seems to have softened opposition from Muslim groups.

Vietnamese Secretary-General To Lam is also expected to attend the meeting in Washington. Freshly reappointed to his position by a........

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