America and Indonesia

Clinton heralds new era in Jakarta | The Australian

THE US had embarked on a new era of a "robust partnership with Indonesia", which would help Washington "reach out to the Muslim world", Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Jakarta last night.

After meeting Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda for about 90 minutes, Ms Clinton affirmed that Indonesia was a place where "Islam, democracy and modernity can not only co-exist but can thrive" and drove home the importance of the relationship to the Barack Obama administration.

She also announced that the two countries would be undertaking a review of strategies to encourage democracy in Burma, including working through the medium of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member and whose secretariat is in Jakarta.

Declaring that she brought "greetings from President Obama", Ms Clinton will also take home with her a message for her new boss from Mr Wirajuda: the Indonesian Government's fervent hope that the US leader will schedule a trip to Jakarta soon.

"President Obama has a very strong constituency here in Indonesia, and the Government and people of Indonesia would like very much to welcome President Obama on his trip to Indonesia," the Foreign Minister said.

"I will say we cannot wait too long and I wish that Hillary Clinton conveys this to President Obama."

The US President, who attended primary school for several years in the Indonesian capital, has indicated his enthusiasm for a trip to the country and last year told his counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, how he fondly recalled nasi goreng (fried rice) and bakso (meatball soup) from that time.

And an Obama donor recalled in December that Mr Obama had promised an early trip to Indonesia, the donor telling the respected Politico blog that the then presidential candidate had said his first words, on disembarking from Air Force One in Jakarta, would be the Indonesian for "I am back, dudes".

Ms Clinton's visit to the Indonesian capital, after Japan and ahead of stopovers in South Korea and China, also included a symbolically important meeting late yesterday with ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan.

Indonesia is hoping for a stronger US engagement with the grouping, whose constituent states boast a total population of 575 million. There were expectations the Obama administration could even sign up to ASEAN's 1976 Treaty of Amity and

Co-operation, allowing it to take part in the next East Asia Summit, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Noting that the trip was her "first as Secretary of State but not my first to Indonesia", Ms Clinton said it was "wonderful to be back" and that she had "very high hopes for the United States-Indonesia relationship" -- a relationship she went on to describe as entering a new form of "comprehensive partnership".

As well as the fraught issue of Burma, on which she acknowledged neither "sanctions (nor) reaching out to" the military junta had had any effect, the pair discussed climate change, the global financial crisis, the middle east situation in general and Palestine in particular, as well as disarmament issues.

"I'm very committed to the relationship between the two countries," Ms Clinton said. "The Obama administration wants to reach out to the entire world. The United States and Asia have a common future -- the question is, how will we share it?"

She is due to meet Dr Yudhoyono at the presidential palace this morning to carry Mr Obama's greetings directly to the Indonesian leader, after accepting a declaration from the Foreign Minister that the country was "honoured and humbled" by her visit.

With national parliamentary elections less than two months away, and presidential polls to follow, Indonesia's political landscape is wide open, giving Ms Clinton's robust defence of its progress towards democracy an added edge.

The US-based Asia analyst Walter Lohman wrote yesterday that Indonesia was "a developing democracy under assault from a determined Islamist minority", noting that the Secretary of State's visit could help balance this tendency.