Indonesia lauds the US commitment as Blinken begins his ASEAN tour

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will give a speech in Jakarta on Tuesday about Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy.

Indonesia's foreign minister said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a "quite evident" commitment to the country as the top American diplomat began a visit of Southeast Asia amid rising tensions with China in the area.

According to the US Department of State, Blinken met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday and emphasised the importance of the two nations' "strategic alliance."

 

According to the statement, Blinken praised "Indonesia's leadership" in the Indo-Pacific region, describing the country as "the world's third-largest democracy and a staunch proponent of the rules-based international order."

Following Blinken's meeting with Indonesian President Jokowi, Retno Marsudi, the country's foreign minister, said the US appeared interested in forming cooperation with Jakarta, notably on infrastructure.

"The US commitment was extremely obvious," Retno said to reporters, declining to elaborate.

 

On Tuesday morning local time, US Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a speech in Jakarta on the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific strategy.

During his trip of the area, Blinken will also visit in Malaysia and Thailand, where Washington and Beijing are increasingly competing for influence.

 

The US aims to expand involvement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to "new heights," according to Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant US secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who spoke to media ahead of Blinken's trip.

In October, President Joe Biden took part in a virtual summit between the United States and ASEAN, promising to strengthen ties with the group.
The US has already expressed support for various ASEAN countries in their disputes with China over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its own.

 

The Chinese state-owned Global Times said Blinken's travel to Southeast Asia "fails to disrupt the equilibrium" in the region in an opinion article published on Monday.

"These countries are good at maintaining a balance between China and the US, in terms of neither being wholly dependent on China nor the US, which is a feature of many countries in the region's foreign policies," Gu Xiaosong, dean of Hainan Tropical Ocean University's ASEAN Research Institute, told the Global Times.