RI, Canada expand ties beyond G20

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/29/2010 10:25 AM

The rise of a resilient Asia in the face of the global economic downturn has brought many major countries knocking on Indonesia’s door in recent years, including the US, China and Canada.

Ties between Indonesia and Canada are largely underpinned by economic contacts, but Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia Mackenzie Clugston said recently in an interview that both countries had expanded relations beyond the economy along with the rise of Indonesia as a democracy.

“Our principle interest in Indonesia is that it is a major G20 country, geographically speaking it is one of the largest countries in the world, it occupies a strategic area in Southeast Asia, it is a democratic, multicultural and multi-religious society, it plays an increasingly [important] role,” he said.

Canada will celebrate Canada Day on July 1.

Clugston said Canada had poured a significant amount of development grants into Indonesia

through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Ottawa has disbursed US$79.39 million in grants from 2008-2009 for sustainable economic growth programs.

Relations between the two G20 members has received more attention as Toronto hosted the G20 summit last weekend.

Clugston said Jakarta and Ottawa were studying the possibility of forging a comprehensive partnership.

“There idea is there but I think we want to be sure that we can deliver on all commitments before we enter into the partnership. We want to make sure that it is not just a piece of paper.”

On the bilateral front, Clugston said future cooperation would have to include expansion of economic ties, security areas, a higher level of dialog or cooperation on development and education.

Indonesia has increasingly made its presence felt to the West after the 1998 reforms that ended 32 years of dictatorship under Soeharto. Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population in the world and is the third-largest democracy.

Indonesia has also spearheaded democracy enhancement in Southeast Asia as major countries in the region face challenges in improving their democratic institutions.

Clugston said Canada’s foreign policy toward Asia largely focused on China and India but Indonesia was also a major point of attention because it was at the center of ASEAN. Also, Indonesia will chair ASEAN next year and is expected to focus attention on democracy, human rights and other economic and security issues as well.

“Indonesia can play a leadership role in promoting human rights in the region,” he said.

Although ASEAN has seen its status rise along with the rest of Asia, the ASEAN’s role in the G20 was questioned when Ottawa did not immediately extended an invitation to the grouping.

ASEAN’s secretary-general and chair were invited to previous G20 summits. Clugston said Canada did not mean to exclude ASEAN representatives to the biannual meeting.

“Prime Minister [Stephen Harper] was determined that the G20 would be a small group of people. His concern in Pittsburgh was that there were around 45 or 50 people around the table and it was too large a group to develop a consensus. We are not excluding ASEAN, the African Union or other groups, but we want to look at a model of small decision making, what size is optimum,” he said.