Jokowi's Visit To The United States: It's Not About Courage, Like Denny Siregar's Tweets

President Jokowi and Mrs. Iriana at the door of the Garuda Indonesia Boeing 777-300 aircraft ahead of departure from Soekarno-Hatta Airport on May 10, 2022, for a visit to the United States May 11-13. (BPMI Setpres/Muchlis Jr)

JAKARTA – President Jokowi is visiting the United States to attend the ASEAN-United States Summit, which will be held in Washington DC on May 11-13, 2022. Jokowi departed from Soekarno-Hatta Airport on May 10 by charter flight Boeing 777-300 Garuda Indonesia.

"This morning, the delegation and I will depart for a working visit to Washington DC from May 11 to 13, 2022", Jokowi said shortly before leaving, as quoted from the official website of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, presidenri.go.id.

President Jokowi and Mrs. Iriana said goodbye before a working visit to the United States on May 10, 2022. (BPMI Presidential Secretariat)

In Uncle Sam's country, Jokowi is scheduled to attend several events. Four events are scheduled to be attended by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, including:

Meetings with members of congress; Meetings with America's great CEOs; Meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and the Americas Climate Change Team; ASEAN Leaders' high-level meeting with President Joe Biden.

Although there are only four events that Jokowi will participate in, the inclusion of the word "among other things". It can be interpreted that there is an agenda other than the four events that Jokowi may carry out while in the United States.

Denny Siregar's Tweet

Before Jokowi and his entourage left for the United States, a tweet appeared from social activist Denny Siregar. In a tweet on the Twitter account @Dennysiregar7 dated May 5, Denny wrote: This is cool, my President.... Don't be afraid.

Denny included a news link from the CNBC Indonesia portal on April 30, with the title: Jokowi Invites Putin to G20 Bali, Joe Biden 'furious'. The news quoted White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki as saying that President Biden publicly opposed the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit which will be held in Bali on November 15-16.

"We have expressed our view that we don't think they, Russia, should be part of the G20 publicly and privately", Psaki said, quoted by The Straits Times on Saturday, April 30.

President Jokowi when meeting President Joe Biden at the Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021. (BPMI Setpres/Laily Rachev)

The White House's official comments clearly responded to Jokowi's statement that he would invite Putin to the G20 summit. Jokowi obtained the plan for Putin's presence after they communicated via telephone on Thursday evening, April 28.

"On this occasion, President Putin expressed his gratitude for the invitation to the G20 summit and he said he would attend", said Jokowi on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel, Friday, April 29.

Besides Putin, Jokowi also invited the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Unlike Putin, who will attend as stated by Jokowi, Zelensky has not confirmed that he will come to Bali.

It's not a matter of courage or fear

The main purpose of Jokowi's visit to the United States is clear, attending the ASEAN-US Summit. As a regional organization consisting of 10 countries, ASEAN has dialogue partners from several countries and the United States is one of them. ASEAN's dialogue partners other than America are Australia, China, Britain, India, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand, and the European Union.

The schedule for the ASEAN-US summit is certainly very tight because its 10 member countries must express views on economic, cultural, political, humanitarian, environmental, and many more issues with America as a partner. Of course, the issue of America's objection to Putin's presence at the G20 Summit will not be discussed in the ASEAN-US Summit forum, because Indonesia is the only member of the G20 who comes from the Southeast Asian region.

There needs to be a special time between Jokowi and Biden to discuss the presence of Putin, as a party who is currently a common enemy of the United States and its allies. If the protocol manages to schedule a one-on-one meeting between Indonesia and the United States, then the issue of Putin's presence can only be discussed.

President Jokowi met President Vladimir Putin at the 2014 APEC Summit in Beijing, China. (Between)

So far, there has been no bilateral meeting agenda between Jokowi and Biden. I don't know if Indonesia and the US will be able to insert an additional agenda for the special Jokowi-Biden meeting to discuss the invitation to Putin. Of course, this is a golden opportunity that Jokowi must take advantage of to convince Biden that the decision to invite Putin to the G20 summit is the right one.

By the constitutional mandate of the 1945 Constitution, Indonesia must participate in realizing world peace. This goal is only implemented through the attitude of Indonesia's foreign policy which is free and active.

According to Law Number 37 of 1999 concerning Foreign Relations, article 3: what is meant by "free and active" is a foreign policy that in essence is not a neutral policy, but a foreign policy that is free to determine attitudes and policies towards international problems and does not bind oneself a priori to one world power and actively contributes, both in thought and active participation in resolving conflicts, disputes, and other world problems, for the sake of realizing world peace based on independence, neglect of peace and social justice.

Hopefully, President Jokowi's visit to the United States this time can really pave the way for world peace.