Mr. Ernest Z. Bower, Senior Adviser and Director of Southeast Asia Programme,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.

I am privileged to deliver an address before this prestigious Banyan Tree Leadership Forum. For this honour, I wish to thank Mr. Ernest Bower, Senior Adviser and Director of the Southeast Asia Programme of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and all others concerned.

I am especially pleased to offer a modest contribution to a forum which is premised on recognition of the importance of building dialogue on a broad range of issues between Southeast Asia and the United States. I have come to Washington in pursuit of that dialogue. I am sure that the more we know of one another and of one another's position on crucial issues, the smoother and the more fruitful is our cooperation. And the more robust is our friendship.

Friends,

Let me begin by sharing with this august Forum an Indonesian perspective of the most pervasive and striking realities of our time.

Nations today must face the fact that we live in a globalized and networked world. And that this world is in the grip of formidable challenges.

Challenges that defy national solutions as they are transnational and global in nature; challenges that are remarkably complex since they are intertwined in nature. As a result, the remedies they demand are at once national, regional and global; as well, solutions that are focused and specific on the one hand, yet comprehensive and broad on the other.

Not least, in a networked age, policy makers no longer has the luxury of paucity of time. A buffer between the occurrence of an event and policy response. Challenges and crises demand realtime responses. Indeed, in contemporary world, it often appears as if crisis and challenges are the norm. A constant. Normalcy the exception.

Crises that you are all too familiar with: the economic downturn from which we all have barely recovered, the financial crisis that is still raging in some developed economies, the persistent food security and energy security crises, the challenge of climate change, and a host of non-traditional threats to security that includes irregular migration, pandemics, international terrorism and religious intolerance.

Of course, concurrently, the more traditional and, perennial, threats to international peace and security remain.
A world in deep crises is a dangerous world. It imperils the weak and the poor as well as the mighty and the rich.
However, I wish not to labour on threats and challenges alone. For I earnestly believe that at the same time these very challenges offer opportunities.

Above all, they provide incentives for a fresh perspective: the imperative for change in the manner nations conduct themselves; certainly at the national level, and indeed at the global level.

A premium for a problem-solving outlook; of building bridges among divides.

Of partnership.

The United States and Indonesia have been addressing this need for change-each in its own way and according to its unique situation and capabilities.

It stands to reason that both will get better results - and contribute more to the welfare of humankind if we work together.

Our two countries have a long friendship that dates back to the time when, in the wake of the Second World War, the United States supported Indonesia's successful struggle for independence.

Today, the United States and Indonesia are respectively the second and the third largest democracies in the world - which means that we are both totally committed to the same values and ideals, including those enshrined in the UN Charter.

Thus today, the prospect for our bilateral relations are the best they have ever been.

It was in recognition of this fact that in November 2008, my President, H.E. Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking before the United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) here in Washington DC, proposed the idea of forging a Comprehensive Partnership between our two countries.

The United States quickly and favourably responded to the idea. When State Secretary Hillary Clinton visited Indonesia in February 2009, she proclaimed support for such a comprehensive partnership.

Since then, on various occasions, Secretary Clinton and I have met to further develop the idea. A few hours from now, I will meet her again in the first Joint Commission Meeting between our two Governments. We will announce the Partnership's Plan of Action after the meeting.

But this much I can tell you now: this Partnership is based on the key principles of mutual respect, common interest and shared benefits.

It is a Comprehensive Partnership that covers a wide range of fields that are crucial to Indonesia's development. They include: education, health, science and technology, food and energy security, national security, trade and investment and sustainability of the environment.

It has a strong sociocultural component: meaning people-to-people contacts. It is a people-centred relationship, involving the kind of soft power that the world would like America to exercise more robustly.

Thus, it addresses the fact that the number of Indonesians studying in the United States has declined from 14,000 a decade ago to around 7,000 today. Cooperation between our respective universities should help reverse this unfortunate trend.

The Partnership will be enriched by the participation of a broad base of stakeholders, including legislators on both sides, our business sectors, our civil societies, academicians, mass media practitioners, community leaders and local officials.

Friends,

If I had stood before you like this some twelve years ago, I should not be talking of a Comprehensive Partnership with the United States.

At that time, authoritarian Indonesia had a gaping democracy deficit. In the midst of the Asian financial crisis, we suffered a negative GDP growth of 13.5 percent - and social turmoil.

But today we have a new Indonesia.

We have launched and sustained an era of reformasi. Some a quarter of a billion people enjoying rights and liberties they were once deprived of.

We have demonstrated our resilience as a nation. Tested by man-made as well as natural disasters.

Having made our democratic transition, we are conscious of the significance of being recognized as the world's third largest democracy.

A living proof that democracy, Islam and modernization can flourish together.

Our democracy is delivering socioeconomic dividends to our people.

Thus when the global financial crisis struck in 2008, sending the world economy on a tailspin, the Indonesian economy grew by 6.0 percent that same year and by 4.5 percent in 2009.

It is expected to grow by 5.5 percent this year and by 6.4 percent next year - the third highest growth rate among G-20 countries after China and India.

Our non-oil exports were valued at $100 billion last year. Our foreign exchange reserves have reached an unprecedented high of $78 billion, while our debt to GDP ratio went down to an unprecedented low of 27.8 percent. Our poverty rate continues to decline, our credit rating keeps rising. Agriculture being the backbone of our economy, our food security continues to strengthen.

These are the fruits of reform.

The dividends of democracy.

Because our people are enjoying these dividends, our democracy is robust and durable. Our national unity is strengthened. As a nation we are more socially cohesive than ever before.

Thus we were able to settle the separatist rebellion in Aceh through peaceful negotiations.

We have transparency in government. The democratic checks and balances of power are always at work. Our justice system has scored many notable victories against the vice of corruption.

But we are not complacent.

We have to continue to invest in and nurture our democratic institutions.

Not least, we are striving to ensure that there is no disconnect between our democratization and the regional milieu. It is certainly not a coincidence that Indonesia's democratic transformation over the past decade has been paralleled by change within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In 2003, in the midst of its internal reform, Indonesia, as Chair of ASEAN, purposefully initiated the concept of an ASEAN Community resting on the three pillars of politico-security, economic and sociocultural cooperation. Since then, ASEAN has adopted a Charter, by virtue of which the member states committed themselves to adhere to democratic values and to the promotion and protection of human rights.

This is, clearly, still a work in progress. However, the trajectory toward greater democracy, not less, enhanced respect for human rights, not less, is clear.

Thus in the same way that we have a democratic Indonesia, we have an ASEAN that is transforming itself by its commitment to democratic values.

Friends,

As Indonesia consolidates within, and contributes to ASEAN community-building, it is also promoting it's world view on the so-called regional architecture building.

Some observations.

A geopolitical shift to the Asia-Pacific region has been quite pronounced and likely to continue. In the Asia-Pacific are found some of the most intriguing relationships among states of consequence whose nature will help define the type of environment we find ourselves in: benign or threatening.

Indonesia believes that the Asia-Pacific region need not slip into a Cold War-type environment of mutual suspicion and hostility.

In this, ASEAN's role will continue to be invaluable.

Over the past decades, ASEAN has helped shaped the wider region's strategic environment by laying norms and principles for the peaceful conduct of states in the region and by building a network of cooperation among countries in the Asia-Pacific hitherto absent.

Today, ASEAN continues to strive to earn such central role by tackling head on the issue of regional architecture building. The forthcoming expansion of the East Asia Summit by including the United States and the Russian Federation is one such response.

For Indonesia, it is consistent with our desire to see a dynamic equilibrium in our region.

A state of affairs marked by an absence of a preponderant power. Of inclusion rather than exclusion. Of states working in concert, sharing a common interest in addressing shared challenges. Where diplomacy and dialogue are the preferred means of conflict resolution rather than the use or threat of use of force.

Indonesia looks forward to working closely with the United States within the framework of the envisaged Comprehensive Partnership to help bring about such a regional architecture.

Friends,

Beyond the Asia-Pacific region, we look forward to collaborating with the United States in the reform of the United Nations that reflects the realities of the contemporary world.

Within the framework of G-20 we will strive alongside the United States to reform the international financial architecture and give the developing world a bigger say in global economic-decision making.

Together we can help ensure that financial flows for development are not disrupted by the financial crisis - and thus promote the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

We can pursue a common advocacy for nuclear disarmament that will eventually lead to a world of zero nuclear weapons.

And a common advocacy to save our tropical forests, our oceans and coral reefs - to mitigate and control the ravages of global warming.

We invite the United States to support our efforts at promoting democratic values through such endeavours as the Bali Democracy Forum - the only intergovernmental forum in Asia that serves as a platform for exchange of experiences and best practices in political development.

We are ready to work with the United States in fostering peace and mutual understanding wherever there is conflict or tension. Whether the problem is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, we will always strive to be part of the solution.

And we invite the United States to join our ongoing efforts to promote interfaith and dialogue among civilizations - as a way of building a bridge of mutual understanding and cooperation between the Western and Muslim world.
Excellencies,
Friends,

There is so much that we can do with this Comprehensive Partnership.

And every achievement of this partnership will send a strong message to the rest of the world: that two nations - no matter that they are in vastly different stages of development - can work together not only for their mutual benefit but also for the good of their region and the welfare of humankind.

That strong message becomes all the more meaningful in the light of the fact that both are vibrant democracies.
The success of that comprehensive partnership will tell a great deal not just about the United States and Indonesia, not just about the West and about Islam but also about democracy and how it can be made fruitful for all humankind.

I thank you.