Indonesia’s leader on Monday looked to cement his nation’s growing ties with the US, declaring after a meeting with US President Barack Obama that Southeast Asia’s largest economy intended to join a sweeping US-backed Pacific Rim trade deal.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo is making his first Washington visit since winning power a year ago, and is keen to drum up US investment in a flagging economy. US companies complain that economic protectionism makes it difficult to do business there.
“Indonesia intends to join the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership],” Widodo said in the Oval Office.
Photo: AFP
He provided no other details, but described the Indonesian economy as open.
Obama said that Widodo was leading Indonesia in the “right direction.”
“We want to be a partner with you,” Obama said.
Indonesia had previously expressed interest in joining the TPP, but this is the strongest indication yet that it is serious about joining the pact, which the US has negotiated with 11 other nations. Once the pact is ratified and takes effect — a process that could take a couple of years — it would cut tariffs and streamline trade rules among nations that account for 40 percent of global GDP.
It could prove a tough sell in Indonesia, where Widodo faces stiff opposition to liberalizing the economy. According the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, Indonesia is 172nd out of 189 economies in the area of contract enforcement.
Speaking at a separate forum on Monday, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said the US has had “serious concerns” about investment barriers in Indonesia.
He did not specifically address the prospect of Indonesia joining TPP, but said: “Other countries who are able and willing to meet its standards, can potentially accede.”
Obama and Widodo also discussed climate change and counterterrorism against groups like the Islamic State group. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and largely moderate.
Another agenda item was maritime security cooperation, Obama said, alluding to tensions in the South China Sea, where a US Navy yesterday sailed inside what China considers its territorial waters around the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei also state claims to. China has built artificial islands in the area to bolster its sovereignty claim.
In a joint statement, Obama and Widodo called for all parties to refrain from actions that raise tensions, but did not mention China by name. They affirmed the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight.
Indonesia balances its relations between the US and China — which is an even more important source of trade and investment than the US. Indonesia is not a claimant in the South China Sea, but is concerned about China’s expansive maritime claims that might infringe on the territorial waters of the Natuna Islands that are part of the Indonesian archipelago.
Widodo has put little focus on foreign relations since he won election last year on a wave of popular support. His visit, which began on Sunday, is a chance to build a rapport with Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.
However, the Indonesian leader was being shadowed by events at home: raging forest fires that have spread a thick, smoky haze over Indonesia as well as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Officials said Widodo would cut short his US visit to deal with the forest fire crisis. His schedule in Washington was to go ahead as planned, but he would skip a stop in San Francisco and was to fly home yesterday afternoon, officials said.
Indonesia is a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the White House meeting came ahead of a global climate change summit.
Obama said he and Widodo had discussed “why it is so important that large countries like ours work together to arrive at the strongest possible set of targets and international agreements before we arrive in Paris in just over a month.”
Widodo said they had agreed to work together on the issue “for the sake of future generations.”
Researchers estimate that, since last month, emissions from Indonesia’s rampant land and forest fires exceeded the average daily emissions from all US economic activity. That is because many of the fires are on peat lands that are extremely rich in carbon.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in