In his guest article for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Berlin Global Advisors Managing Partner Martin Wiesmann examines how Indonesia leverages its geostrategic location, its tradition of non-alignment and its leading role within ASEAN to preserve political and economic autonomy between Washington and Beijing.

Situated between the US and China along one of the world’s most important trade and energy routes, Indonesia has pursued a clear strategic principle for decades: maintaining close relations in all directions without becoming permanently aligned with any major power.

This strategic openness also shapes the country’s economic policy. Indonesia is seeking to diversify its industrial base, strengthen domestic value creation and attract international capital and foreign investment in technology. At the same time, China’s economic influence continues to grow, while Jakarta maintains security cooperation with the US as a strategic partner and seeks to deepen its relations with Europe.

Indonesia thus brings us back to a central question of our series: Can strategic openness preserve autonomy in the long term, or does it merely create a more complex web of new dependencies?

Read Martin Wiesmann’s full FAZ guest article here: FAZ – Indonesia: everyone’s friend

Image source: Gregory A. Harden II / U.S. Navy (CC BY 2.0)