Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China on July 26, 2022. Given Beijing’s rigorous zero-COVID-19 policy, the meeting came as a surprise.
The renewal of the agreement of understanding on the collaboration between Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF), a framework for transforming Indonesia into a global maritime center, and China’s Maritime Silk Road under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was a major outcome.
The visit and agreement appeared to show Jokowi’s dedication to his cooperative GMF goal. When presented during the East Asia Summit in November 2014, the GMF, which was said to represent Indonesia’s marine cooperation policy, got supports from India, Australia, Japan, the United States and China.
Others suggested the GMF was Indonesia’s middle power strategy to respond to the great power competition, with the goal of strengthening economic relations with China while keeping Washington committed to Indo-Pacific security.
The GMF is now merely a foreign policy myth. Many consider the beginning of Jokowi’s second term in 2019 to be the GMF’s “official time of death”. During the 2019 presidential debate, instead of emphasizing the nation’s maritime identity and GMF vision, Jokowi stated that Indonesia’s diplomatic might was based on its status as the world’s biggest Muslim country.
