This yr, Indonesia and Türkiye commemorate 75 years of bilateral relations. Final month, the inaugural Excessive-Degree Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSC) between Indonesia and Türkiye was additionally being held, which resulted in the signing of 13 agreements between ministries and establishments of each nations. This second serves as a reaffirmation of the Indonesia-Türkiye Strategic Partnership, which was established in 2011 in the course of the Presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Reflecting on Türkiye’s geographical place, Yücel Bozdağlioğlu argues that Türkiye faces an identification dilemma attributable to its equally sturdy interactions with each Asia and Europe. Underneath Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s management, Türkiye related itself extra with the West to claim its standing as a contemporary civilization (muasır medeniyet). This alignment led to Türkiye’s membership within the North Atlantic Treaty Group and its candidacy to turn out to be a member of the European Union (EU). Nevertheless, Türkiye’s EU accession has been hindered by persistent detrimental perceptions from EU Member States. This problem prompted Türkiye to rekindle its historic connections with Asian nations. This shift started within the Nineteen Eighties below Turgut Özal, who envisioned a commerce hall “from the Adriatic Sea to the Nice Wall of China.” This imaginative and prescient was later refined by Ismail Cem, Türkiye’s Overseas Minister within the Nineties from the center-left Democratic Left Occasion, who argued that Türkiye naturally owned two important identities: as a central nation (merkez ülke) and as a terminal nation (terminal ülke) connecting Asia and Europe. This imaginative and prescient grew to become a cornerstone of Turkish international coverage within the subsequent many years, together with below the AK Occasion authorities.
Within the early 2000s, Ahmet Davutoğlu, then a international coverage advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister, by highlighting Türkiye’s historic ties with Asia, coined the time period Asian Depth (Asya Derinliği) to explain Türkiye’s potential deeper engagement with Asia. Nevertheless, this idea was not absolutely developed by Davutoğlu and subsequent administrations. It was not till 2019 that Türkiye launched a selected international coverage imaginative and prescient centered on Asia, generally known as Asia Anew (Yeniden Asya). This coverage aligns with three important priorities in Türkiye’s international coverage, which consisted of three important agendas. First, strengthening Türkiye’s partnerships with Asian nations to advance bilateral relations. Second, enhancing Türkiye’s credentials as a mannequin nation within the apply of diplomacy and mediation. Third, prioritizing digital diplomacy is a important instrument within the conduct of Türkiye’s international coverage.
Inside the Asia Anew framework, Türkiye has positioned higher emphasis on Southeast Asia, significantly Indonesia and Malaysia. This focus relies on the standing of each nations as democratic, Muslim-majority nations that play key roles within the area. Though the Asia Anew Idea permits Turkiye to open its relations deeper in the direction of Asian nations, it largely stays a basic idea and wishes time to search out its focus. When it comes to operational definition, the Asia Anew Initiative covers broad ideas reminiscent of rising tradition, financial system, and army exchanges with Asian nations. This raised some questions on whether or not the Asia Anew Initiative has some ambiguities or will likely be a major doctrine in Turkish international coverage. The primary motive is that Turkiye has to calibrate its focus in the direction of every nation to catch the momentum. This needs to be performed not solely within the setting of government-to-government engagement but additionally in people-to-people relationships.
The high-level conferences between Türkiye and Indonesia resulted within the signing of 13 agreements protecting cooperation in protection, schooling, funding, agriculture, pure useful resource exploration, and communications. Two of those agreements particularly give attention to strengthening protection cooperation, significantly within the joint improvement of unmanned aerial automobiles and protection tools in Indonesia.
Since assuming the function of Protection Minister below President Joko Widodo, Prabowo Subianto has been dedicated to establishing protection partnerships with key nations, together with Türkiye. The intensive protection diplomacy initiated throughout Jokowi’s administration has fostered belief between Turkish and Indonesian bureaucrats. On this context, President Prabowo’s new strategy to Indonesian international coverage will certainly contribute lots to Turkiye’s new child initiative in the direction of Asia. Probowo’s initiatives within the protection sector have resulted in a army drone-selling settlement between Turkiye and Indonesia. On this context, Indonesia will purchase 60 Bayraktar TB3 drones. This clearly reveals that Turkiye’s Asia Anew Initiative is profitable in responding to different actors’ calls for. Nevertheless, if Turkiye fails in army technological development, would the Asia Anew Initiative achieve success or not is a vital query to be requested.
However, an extreme give attention to protection diplomacy needs to be balanced with the understanding that sturdy bilateral relations are higher constructed by means of shut civil society engagement. Protection diplomacy, whereas necessary, is ceaselessly influenced by ever-changing geopolitical dynamics and principally stays an elite-driven initiative. On this case, Indonesian society is aware of lots about Turkiye, particularly by way of historic perspective, particularly ‘Ottoman Idea’. Indonesian folks, particularly in Muslim circles, extremely confer with and glorify the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Turkish society’s data about Indonesia in addition to Southeast Asia, remains to be restricted. To strengthen the ties between societies, policymakers ought to take extra concrete steps in people-to-people relations. For the Turkiye aspect, this has to start out from scratch, with ideas reminiscent of Pancasila (5 Guiding Ideas of the Indonesian Republic), Islam Nusantara, Adat-adat Indonesia (Indonesian traditions), and so forth. In any other case, Asia Anew received’t go additional than serving the materialist curiosity of the Turkish republic.
There are three coverage proposals that may very well be thought-about by Indonesian and Turkish governments to additional strengthen bilateral relations. First, the Indonesian and Turkish governments ought to create higher area for civil society to strengthen people-to-people relations. This may be achieved by means of initiatives reminiscent of scholarship applications, scholar exchanges, and collaboration between NGOs on social and humanitarian points. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that the 5,000 Indonesian college students learning in Türkiye will function gönül elçiliği (cultural ambassadors) for Türkiye in Indonesia. Equally, Indonesia ought to take into account offering extra scholarships and change alternatives for Turkish college students by means of short-term applications like Darmasiswa and long-term initiatives just like the KNB scholarship.
Second, Türkiye has taken important steps to advertise its tradition in Indonesia, reminiscent of establishing the Yunus Emre Institute in Jakarta, introducing Turkish dramas and literature in Indonesian, and popularizing Turkish delicacies. Indonesia ought to reciprocate by actively selling Indonesian tradition in Türkiye. This consists of participating Indonesian alumni who studied in Türkiye to translate Indonesian novels into Turkish and broadly introduce Indonesian cultural and culinary heritage, reminiscent of selling Indonesian espresso tradition in Türkiye. These efforts are crucial to forestall a ignorance amongst Turks relating to Indonesian and broader Asian cultures. The additional cultural and societal change between Indonesians and Turks would keep away from misunderstanding, which could trigger attainable backtracking in bilateral relations between the 2 nations, as in the talk of the naming of a avenue in Menteng as ‘Atatürk Avenue’.
Third, and eventually, as two rising center powers in world politics, Indonesia and Türkiye ought to help one another in reinforcing their roles in regional and worldwide affairs. Indonesia, as a regional chief in Southeast Asia, can help Türkiye find a related function inside ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific area. Conversely, Türkiye, one of many main nations within the Muslim world, ought to facilitate Indonesia’s involvement in addressing strategic points within the Center East and the Muslim world, significantly regarding the difficulty in Palestine.
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