Indonesia’s Prabowo appoints new foreign minister 

[JAKARTA] Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto replaced his foreign minister with a career diplomat on Thursday (Oct 1), in his second change to a top post in his cabinet in less than three weeks.

In a reshuffle, Prabowo named Indonesia’s former permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, Arrmanatha Nasir, as the new foreign minister, with the outgoing Sugiono appointed coordinating minister for human development.

The appointment of Arrmanatha, who was Sugiono’s deputy, is expected to mark a shake-up at the ministry.

It comes after Prabowo replaced his finance minister, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, on Sep 14, replacing him with his deputy, Suahasil Nazara, a move investors said would help restore confidence in the $1.5 trillion G20 economy after months of uncertain policymaking.

Arrmanatha said after the inauguration that his priorities included maintaining stability in the region and promoting multilateralism.

Diplomatic voice

Analysts have said that Sugiono’s foreign ministry had been sidelined with Prabowo playing a more dominant role in Indonesian foreign policy, which has long been characterised by a principle of “free and active” non-alignment.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a foreign policy analyst at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, said long-time diplomat Arrmanatha was expected to play a more assertive role.

“He can be a foil to Prabowo,” she said, adding that the foreign ministry under the “even-keeled” Arrmanatha will now be under pressure to scrutinise every diplomatic deal more carefully.

Dewi cited the furore caused by a joint statement signed with China in 2024, which pledged to develop projects “in the overlapping waters claimed by the two countries”. The statement was widely interpreted as a recognition of China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

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Dewi also said she hoped Nasir could help “get Indonesia back on the map” within Asean by shaping the South-east Asian bloc’s response to Myanmar, which has been engulfed in a nationwide civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.

Low-profile

Keeping a low profile and only rarely appearing in the media, Arrmanatha’s predecessor Sugiono came from Prabowo’s Gerindra party and was not a diplomat. State news agency Antara once described Sugiono as Prabowo’s “ideological child” and one of his most trusted aides.

As foreign minister, Sugiono oversaw some notable foreign policy initiatives, including Indonesia’s entry into Brics, the grouping of major emerging economies, as well as Jakarta’s decision to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative for Gaza.

Indonesia also pledged troops to a proposed international stabilisation force for Gaza.

Nasir said after his swearing-in that Indonesia was still monitoring developments with the Board of Peace and the international stabilisation force. REUTERS