Opening The ASEAN Summit, Jokowi: Don't Make Our Ship A Arena Destroy Each Other!

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo officially opened the 43rd ASEAN Summit (KTT) at the Jakarta Convention Center, Jakarta, today, Tuesday, September 5.

"By saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I hereby declare that the 43rd ASEAN Summit and other summits are officially open," said Jokowi.

In his opening speech, Jokowi emphasized the importance of cooperation among ASEAN countries to face a world that is not doing well.

He considered that the existence of big challenges in the future could result in the struggle for the influence of power by big countries. Thus, the ASEAN region needs to increase cooperation in the future.

"However, ASEAN has agreed not to be a proxy for any force, to cooperate with anyone for peace and prosperity. Don't make our ASEAN ship a mutually destroying rivalry arena, but make this ASEAN ship a field to grow cooperation," said Jokowi.

Jokowi said that countries in ASEAN are still unable to face the challenges that exist alone, but require the help of other countries to achieve prosperity.

"The world's moderates are too wide to be sailed alone, on our way there will be other ships, ASEAN partner ships, let's jointly realize equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, to sail together to the Epicentrum of Growth," he concluded.

For your information, a total of 22 countries attended. A total of 11 ASEAN countries consist of Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Timor Leste.

Then, there were nine invited partner countries, namely the Republic of Korea, India, Japan, RRT, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Russia, and the United States (US).

With the addition of two more countries, namely, Bangladesh as Chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Cook Islands as Chair of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF).

Indonesia also invited international organizations to unite nations (PBB), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Forum, IORA, and PIF.

The ASEAN Indonesia 2023 Chairship Theme is "ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth". Through this theme, Indonesia wants to ensure that ASEAN is not only an organization that plays a role for the region, but also for the world.