President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, left, and President Xi Jinping of China in 2017.
Image: Kenzaburo Fukuhara / Pool / AFP
When President Biden met his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, last month in Glasgow, he praised Indonesia’s “essential” leadership in the Indo-Pacific and “strong commitment” to democratic values.
But the reality of American engagement with the world’s third-most-populous democracy has been more tepid than these warm words imply, belying Indonesia’s position as the leading Southeast Asian power and a vital balancing force in the geopolitical contest of our time between the United States and China.
©2019 New York Times News Service