During our latest gathering, we shared our impressions on various national elections that have been and will be held in 2024. Naturally, one of the most popular topics was the November election in the United States.

We shared our thoughts on the possible international impact of the front-runners, if he or she were elected to lead the US, and whether Donald Trump will pursue a similar diplomatic approach as he did when he served as the country’s 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

While discussing this very topic of legacy in terms of foreign policy and diplomacy, I wondered how we will remember the leadership of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Perhaps foreign policy observers and pundits will see him as a diplomat in chief who was rather indifferent to foreign policy and diplomacy. They might argue that his absence at the annual United Nations General Assembly as confirmation of this inclination.

They might also argue that he left a major part of Indonesia’s foreign policymaking and diplomacy in the hands of professionals at the Foreign Ministry under the stewardship of Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi.

In my opinion however, there are three foreign policy issues that have President Jokowi’s strong signature and can therefore be claimed as his legacy.

The first concerns the policy decision on downstreaming Indonesia’s natural resources, particularly critical minerals like nickel. This policy is an assertion of sovereignty in managing our natural resources.

The industrial countries that rely on raw materials from resource-rich countries like Indonesia opposed this strategic decision, reasoning that such a policy jeopardized continuity in their domestic industrial production and would harm their workforce. For that matter, the European Union filed a case against Indonesia at the World Trade Organization, which is now entering the appeal process.

For its part, the EU unilaterally introduced the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Its enforcement by the end of 2024 will affect millions of smallholder farmers in the developing world, including Indonesia.

In a strong rebuttal to this unilateralism, President Jokowi stated during the opening of the ASEAN-EU commemorative summit in Brussels on Dec. 14 2022: “If we want to build a good partnership, the partnership must be based on equality, no coercion. There should not be any dictating parties who believe that their standard is better than others’.”

The notion of partnership as he highlighted is also manifest in our green commitments to protect the environment. This is the second foreign policy issue on which President Jokowi has left his mark.

In 2021, Indonesia released the legally binding Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) Net Sink 2030. This document outlines Indonesia’s ambitious plan to achieve carbon neutrality in the FOLU sector by reducing emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and carbon-rich peatlands.

Indonesia also actively promotes the restoration of forests, peatlands and mangroves as nature’s excellent tools in absorbing carbon.

Speaking at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum in June 2024, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya quoted professor Matt Hansen from the University of Maryland, who confirmed a sharp decline in Indonesia's annual deforestation rate from 2016 to 2023 to the lowest levels in 33 years.

At this point in time, Indonesia must allocate from funds its own coffers to achieve the FOLU Net Sink 2030 targets. However, going it alone to fulfill its emissions reduction commitment, which requires billions of dollars in investment, will not be highly impactful.

International support and partnership with various stakeholders, based on trust and not patronization, is key in ensuring the success of developing countries in meeting their emissions targets. A good example of this is the US$156 million results-based financing from the Norwegian government for FOLU 2030, which is seen as recognition of Indonesia’s serious commitment.

This contribution is managed by the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH), which was set up under the Finance Ministry and allows a wide range of stakeholders, including philanthropies and private sector businesses, to take part in the resource mobilization campaign.

Setting up a trust fund to optimize Indonesia’s foreign policy objectives is, in my opinion, the third legacy of President Jokowi.

In 2019 with his blessing, the government established the Indonesian Agency for International Development (Indonesian AID) to enable rapid mobilization of funds to assist developing countries affected by natural disasters and calamities.

The trust fund enables Indonesia to structure development assistance programs more rigorously, in a more impactful manner and with greater accountability. Before the establishment of Indonesian AID there was always a lapse in time between declaring commitments to help and their realization.

As a matter of fact, promoting social justice internationally is mandated by the Constitution. Looking back, Indonesia has shown sympathy and solidarity to the plight of other nations in need since the early days of independence.

In 1946, while Indonesia was fighting against recolonization attempts, the founding fathers provided 500,000 tonnes of rice to India, which was experiencing food shortages.

All and all, solidarity with the Global South through South-South cooperation as well as technical and development assistance has always had a special place in Indonesia’s foreign policy.

Successive governments continued to give special attention to this foreign policy feature and with Indonesian AID today, we are better able to concretize this spirit of solidarity.

I have outlined the three foreign policy legacies of President Jokowi that can be enhanced further.

First is by setting aside proceeds from critical minerals downstreaming into a sovereign wealth fund. Indonesia’s future generations should also benefit from the finite natural resources being extracted today.

Second is by maximizing the use of processed commodities for domestic consumption, such as absorbing more biofuels made from palm oil. This is in anticipation of more unilateral regulations like the EUDR.

As a final thought, as with other nations, Indonesia will continue to face streams of global challenges and new strategic issues. How we respond to these and define our foreign policy posture will very much depend on clarity in translating our national interests.

Who knows? Perhaps this is another topic I can explore with my fellow diplomats at our next gathering.

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The writer is Indonesian Ambassador to Norway and Iceland. The views expressed are personal.