President Jokowi Encourages ASEAN-US to Help Promoting Peace in South China Sea and the Middle East

A working dinner meeting attended by President Jokowi in California, the USA

To end Retreat I on Monday evening (15/2), President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo attended a working dinner at the Sunnylands Historic Home. President of the United States, Barrack Obama became the host of the working dinner having the theme of ‘On Regional Strategic Outlook’.

President Jokowi, just like other heads of ASEAN member countries, delivered his statement on the occasion. President mentioned 2 major issues: promoting peace in South China Sea and promoting peace in the Middle East.

President Jokowi stated that the South China Sea had to be a peaceful and stable region. To make it happen, he emphasized that International Law had to be respected, rivalry between great powers had to be prevented, Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) should be implemented fully and effectively, and Code of Conduct (COC) should be immediately completed.

In addition, President underlined it was very important that every party had to stop activities that could increase tension. As non-claimant state, President Jokowi conveyed that Indonesia would like to make contribution to the peace and stability of South China Sea.

Furthermore, President Jokowi expressed his concern in relation to the Middle East condition. At the beginning of 2016, global concern has been increasing along with the deteriorating relation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, not to mention the Palestinian problem that has not been resolved yet and Syrian conflict which caused refugees fleeing from Syria.

According to President, at the same time, the attempt to fight against ISIS has not obtained a satisfying result. In fact, the number of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) keeps increasing. Indonesia cannot stay indifferent to see this condition.

“I have sent Indonesian Foreign Minister to Iran, Saudi Arabia and a number of Middle Eastern countries to promote peace”, said President.

President Jokowi added that Indonesia had delivered a peace message and political solution at the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on 21 January 2016 in Jeddah. This peace message became a part of the Communique of OIC Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting at that time. Indonesia has proposed a mechanism like COC which contains the principles of trust building, respect for the sovereignty of other countries and non-interference in domestic affairs.

“It is one of the solutions to promote peace in the Middle East,” President said.

Related to the attempt to resolve the problem in Palestine, President said that Indonesia continues to consistently support Palestinian Independence. The manifestation of Indonesia’s contribution is its willingness to be the host of the OIC Extraordinary Summit on 6-7 March 2016 which would address the issues of Palestine and Al-Quds. Indonesia as the host will invite some observers including the US.

“I encourage ASEAN and the US to continue contributing to the resolution of the Palestinian problem,” President said at the end of his remarks. (TKP/SLN/UN/EN) (KAW/LW)