I interviewed Dr. Siswo Pramono, Director General/Head of the Policy Analysis and Development  Agency (PADA) at the Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). to discuss the impacts of the global COVID-19 crisis on Indonesia’s foreign policy.  As the centre for the gravity of geopolitics and the geopolitical map has been shifted to Asia, also accelerated by this pandemic, Indonesia needs to gain the benefits of the shifting. Amidst the straining geopolitical contest among major powers and the COVID-19 pandemic, China appeared with a narrative of being a global leader in fighting the pandemic with its vaccine diplomacy and rising political influences. Is Indonesia pulled to China’s COVID-19 influence?

We were talking about one of Indonesia’s foreign policy priorities, economic diplomacy. I see a changing focus of Indonesia’s foreign economic policy from the first term of President Jokowi’s administration to the second term. The first term was very much associating Indonesia’s economic diplomacy with its maritime fulcrum goals. However, in the second term, primarily driven to have more investment and trade partnerships, have there been any changes in Indonesia’s economic diplomacy direction? What are the main challenges for Indonesia’s economic diplomacy at the post-pandemic time?