Friday, March 29, 2024 | 16:50 WIB

The power of middle-income countries

Jakarta, IO – The G20 Summit meetings in Bali ended, not with a “bang”, but it certainly should be applauded for having come up with a communique sufficiently strong in its condemnation of Russia’s Ukraine invasion. China and Saudi Arabia, tending to lean toward Russia, did in the end sign the declaration, making it solid. The Financial Times, in its report, commended the tireless efforts by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and India’s PM Modi, who successfully argued that the economic impacts of the war, such as an impaired export of grain from Ukraine, due to Russian blockage of Mariupol, which resulted in a food crisis, turned out to be a strong weapon in the matter. This, along with smooth management of the Conference, are commendable indeed. Of course, one should not forget the side-line meetings of Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, clarifying their respective stands on important issues like Taiwan, South China Sea and trade, as well as meetings between President’s Xi and Emmanuel Macron and others, are also aspects demonstrating the success of the Bali G20 Summit. Indonesia’s transfer of the G20 Presidency to India was carried out promptly. 

Other things to note 

We note how President Joe Biden excused himself from the dinner with beautiful entertainment characteristic of Bali tradition, and instead took the opportunity to convene an emergency meeting with NATO members, discussing developments in the Russia-Ukraine war that were in danger of spilling over into NATO. A Russian-made missile exploded inside Poland, not far from the border with Ukraine. NATO decided to let Poland investigate as to where the missile originated. In the event, a statement at the press conference after the meeting saw President Biden smartly saying that he did not think the missile came from Russia. Fortunately, he was proven right. At the press conference in Brussel, NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg said that according to a careful investigation, the missile fired from Ukraine in defense against a hundred missiles that were fired by the Russian army that day ended up landing by mistake in Poland and killing two people. However, the NATO Secretary General reiterated that this was not Ukraine’s fault, as after all Ukraine was under a heavy attack and was simply making efforts to defend itself. Two minor incidents included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov having to be hospitalized after eating spicy Balinese food, and President Xi giving PM Trudeau a minor dressing-down for a comment (I am not sure what that was). So, in short, The G20 Bali Summit may be adjudged a success. Bravo to Indonesia and to all participants. 

My take on the G20 Summit is that this turned out to be a good occasion for Indonesia and other middle-income countries’ leaders to definitively showcase their role in the global arena. Globalization is here to stay, and in this interconnected world cooperation and coordination are vital. Maybe we could say that the G20 Summit has once again assumed its role in dealing with world challenges and problems, since this is no longer a monopoly of superpower states like the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. 

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As for ASEAN, our own region, let us hope that this event will go far toward strengthening our resolve, birthed at its formation in 1967, that we firmly decline any intention to become ensnared in a military pact. Nevertheless, we should also realize that this should not be interpreted as a “weakness” of ASEAN. It is commendable that ASEAN successfully sidelined the Myanmar junta. We should abide by non-intervention in domestic policy, while somehow creating a workable mechanism to exclude a member that happens to violate human rights, as what occurred with the Rohingya. This must remain in place, while embarking on strenuous efforts to make the mechanism more effective and work better. After 55 years in existence, ASEAN should be in a position to organize among members internally, so that it might play a more important role, with confidence, in facing challenges and problems globally, together with the bigger powers and even with superpowers. I only see benefits, if ASEAN becomes more assertive and carries its weight responsibly in international relations, in a world still facing risks and uncertainties urgently in need of resolution. 

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