Joint Statement from the Leaders of the United States and the Republic of Indonesia: Elevating Relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is honored to welcome Indonesian President Joko Widodo to Washington, D.C. The two leaders mark a historic new phase of bilateral cooperation and friendship between the world’s second- and third-largest democracies. On the cusp of celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations and recognizing the two nations’ shared values of democracy and pluralism and common commitment to the rules-based international order, President Biden and President Widodo commit to elevate the U.S.-Indonesia relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
In the eight years since establishing the U.S.-Indonesia Strategic Partnership, the two countries have made remarkable strides in increasing mutual understanding and trust and strengthening cooperation. Under the elevated framework of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, President Biden and President Widodo intend to further expand cooperation on all issues of common concern, including good governance; pluralism; and respect for human rights, the rule of law, sovereignty, sustainable development, and territorial integrity. The United States and Indonesia intend to remain deep friends and close partners, working hand-in-hand to deliver a better future for our citizens and tackle the emerging challenges of the twenty-first century.
Promoting Inclusive Economic Growth through Innovation, Sustainable Development, Public Health, and Digital Transformation
The two leaders reaffirm the importance of innovation-driven, inclusive economic growth as a core pillar of our efforts to deliver better lives and livelihoods for the American and Indonesian people. Both sides plan to work together to boost bilateral trade and deepen cooperation on economic policy, including through the U.S.-Indonesia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and other platforms, and by preparing regulatory measures in an open and transparent manner.
President Widodo and President Biden express firm intent to support market-based economic reforms that promote decent work, social justice, freedom of association, and collective bargaining, and affirm broad, supportive, and constructive bilateral engagement to ensure a trade and investment relationship that is built upon high standards. The leaders look forward to further engagement and progress under the U.S.-Indonesia TIFA, which provides an important opportunity for the United States and Indonesia to work together on a range of issues, including trade in services, intellectual property, labor, investment, agricultural and industrial goods, and to facilitate exchange and dialogue among relevant stakeholders.
President Biden expresses his support for Indonesia initiating the accession process to become a full member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Corresponding to the commencement of this process, the United States looks forward to working with all OECD members to ensure Indonesia is successful in fulfilling all its commitments in the OECD accession roadmap, including all necessary economic, trade, labor, and employment reforms.
The leaders pledge to continue strengthening a non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable, transparent, and rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core. In addition, both sides applaud the progress thus far and look forward to additional substantial progress under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), which will deliver concrete benefits to the economies and workers of the two countries and the region.
President Biden and President Joko Widodo recognize Indonesia’s global leadership in the nickel, cobalt, and other critical minerals value chains, the United States’ significant critical mineral resources, and the Biden Administration’s commitment to developing the full U.S. critical mineral supply chain. They emphasize the opportunity to create high-standard clean energy supply chain jobs in both countries through a robust partnership between the United States and Indonesia that leads to mutually beneficial development of domestic resources in accordance with fair market-based rules.
They commit to work together to reduce supply chain dependencies and vulnerabilities, promote supply chain transparency, and expand access to secure and sustainable critical minerals sources. They affirm the importance of strong worker and environmental protections to prevent exploitation and promote sustainability in the international mining sector.
They determine to take concrete steps to adopt and implement policies that advance occupational safety and health and fair wages and ensure employers uphold internationally recognized labor standards and comply with domestic labor law at each country’s mining and processing facilities. They commit to work together to strengthen Indonesia’s investment environment, including with technical assistance and capacity building resources, and to mobilize high-standard investment that will create healthy, safe, and decent work for Indonesians and Americans, while enhancing economic and energy security for both countries. They commit to working toward a low-greenhouse gas emissions mineral supply chain, including efforts to seek to promote clean and low-emission power for mineral processing.
To advance this work, they commit to develop a critical minerals action plan that encompasses all of these lines of effort and seeks to increase high standard investment in the critical minerals sectors in both countries. They commit to pursue these efforts with a view toward establishing the foundation to launch future negotiations on a critical minerals agreement.
The two leaders reaffirm their commitment to work together to build secure and resilient semiconductor supply chains in support of our respective national interests and in accordance with respective national legislations. With support from the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund, created by the U.S. CHIPS Act of 2022, the two leaders affirm to support the development of, and spur investment in, Indonesia’s domestic semiconductor ecosystem, with a view to enhance local value creation, diversify global supply chains, and support U.S. industry. These initiatives aim to support Indonesia as a partner in the development of secure and trustworthy telecommunications networks to ensure a secure and diverse semiconductor supply chain.
The leaders reaffirm their commitment to sustainable development including on addressing poverty reduction and gender and income disparities, shoring up health systems, and facilitating inclusive economic growth. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry signed a new joint forest and wildlife conservation partnership agreement aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, safeguarding vulnerable species, adapting to the negative effects of climate change, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for residents of forest communities. Furthermore, the United States and Indonesia plan to work together through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment and regional initiatives such as IPEF to mobilize public and private investment in infrastructure to support Indonesia’s sustainable growth and decent work for all.
President Widodo welcomes continued collaboration with the United States on the development of Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) intends to fund a trade mission to the United States focused on the development of the new capital city to promote U.S. exports in quality, sustainable infrastructure and innovative smart-city solutions. USTDA also plans to fund training for Indonesian officials on value-based procurement for designing, evaluating, and awarding tenders for the new capital city. This work builds on USAID’s ongoing technical assistance to the Nusantara New Capital Authority to develop smart building guidelines – the first of its kind in Indonesia. The U.S. Department of Commerce plans to organize a Smart City Business Development Mission to further strengthen trade and investment on smart city development in Indonesia.
The two leaders recognize important bilateral efforts to enhance cooperation in the health sector through increased research and technical collaboration, investment in human capital development, and the sharing of best practices. The leaders look forward to fostering greater collaboration across multiple health sectors, including through a planned five-year renewal of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Indonesia’s Ministry of Health. Building on the two countries’ long-standing partnership in combatting infectious disease, the leaders intend to further strengthen cooperation on pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response, particularly in vaccine delivery as well as the research and development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Both leaders reiterate their shared commitment to eradicating infectious diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, polio, Zika, tuberculosis, and dengue as well as strengthening prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases such as stroke, cancer, and heart disease. The United States welcomes and supports Indonesia’s Declaration on Cervical Cancer Elimination through the National Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan (2023 to 2030) and the two governments reiterate their shared intent to eliminate the incidence of cervical cancer.
Powering the Clean Energy Transition
Recognizing that the climate crisis poses an existential threat, the leaders reaffirm the two countries will pursue urgent actions in efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. They resolve to expand collaboration on clean and renewable energy production to accelerate the clean energy transition while working to ensure affordable, accessible, and transparent provision of clean energy for their citizens.
Indonesia and the United States will continue to closely collaborate, including with other partners, on the $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to realize the accelerated deployment of renewable energy and the reduction of emissions in Indonesia within the agreed-upon timeline in the Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP). President Biden applauds Indonesia’s ambitious climate commitments under its JETP, including strong renewable energy deployment and power sector emissions goals. President Widodo welcomes U.S. contributions to the JETP and looks forward to further efforts to deliver public and private financing for Indonesia’s clean energy transition. Indonesia welcomes future projects funded by international financial institutions in the areas of climate change response, energy transition, green growth, and renewable energy infrastructure. The United States and Indonesia intend to pursue an ambitious program of cooperation on wind, solar, civil nuclear, and geothermal energy, while enhancing cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the minerals, waste, and transportation sectors. The two countries also acknowledge the value of the Net Zero World Initiative to support the transformation of Indonesia’s energy economy, including cooperation on low-carbon battery supply chains.
In support of the goals of JETP, the United States and Indonesia also announce a memorandum of understanding on sustainable energy and mineral development that will advance technical cooperation on enabling environments and regulatory frameworks to help increase the uptake of renewable energy resources, enhance grid resiliency and security, and improve technologies for responsible mining and minerals processing practices. As the clean energy transition will have enormous impacts for the workers and communities throughout Indonesia, the United States will also engage with Indonesian policymakers in addressing workforce needs such as strategic investments, workforce training, and equitable just transition policies to ensure workers benefit from the evolving clean energy industry. President Biden welcomes Indonesia to the Greening Government Initiative (GGI), as a platform for cooperation on these issues.
The two countries applaud bilateral public-private cooperation to conduct feasibility studies to deploy small modular reactor (SMR) technology for the clean energy transition. This effort is encompassed under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment with new funding through the Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of SMR Technology (FIRST) program.
The leaders’ strong commitment to addressing the drivers and impacts of climate change is reflected through joint efforts such as the U.S.-Indonesia Bilateral Climate Working Group on forests, nature, and climate; the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry-U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Cooperation; and IPEF. The United States and Indonesia will also initiate a dialogue on scaling climate finance and investment in the forest and land use sectors to support emissions reductions and the sustainable bioeconomy.
Deepening People-to-People Ties, Cultural Exchanges, and Tourism
The leaders underscore their plan to foster stronger people-to-people connections and cultural exchanges while deepening cooperation in education, research and development. Both sides look to achieve this goal through returning the number of Peace Corps volunteers in Indonesia to pre-pandemic levels, engaging in sustained interfaith dialogues via the Indonesia-United States Council on Religion and Pluralism, and increasing the number of Fulbright awardees between Indonesia and the United States. Additionally, the leaders commit to grow educational, professional, and cultural exchanges, including through the Beasiswa Seni Budaya Indonesia, Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan, Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), Darmasiswa Scholarship, the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), and the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program (KL-YES). The leaders jointly announce the U.S.-Indonesia Tourism Partnership that strengthens travel and tourism opportunities between the two countries. President Biden applauds President Widodo’s support for the establishment of a Georgetown University presence in Jakarta, which will help Indonesia build its human capital and research capacity, while training the next generation of American policy specialists on Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
The leaders welcome further cooperation to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and entrepreneurship collaboration, with a special focus on women and youth. The leaders applaud their countries’ growing engagement on cultural heritage preservation and conservation, including through a memorandum of understanding between the United States’ Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The leaders note the plans for a YSEALI initiative on sustainable and inclusive tourism development, U.S. support for preserving Indonesian local languages, collaboration to document over 400 local recipes across the archipelago, and plans for a discussion series on best practices in historic preservation and museum management. As part of this collaboration, President Widodo also recognizes U.S. efforts to support the restoration and modernization of Indonesia’s historic National Museum, and other museums and cultural heritage sites.
Fostering Peace and Stability in the Indo-Pacific and Beyond
President Biden congratulates President Widodo on Indonesia’s successful ASEAN chair year and expresses support for Indonesia’s leadership in the Indo-Pacific. President Widodo welcomes the U.S. commitment to ASEAN, as reflected in the November 2022 upgrade of the U.S.-ASEAN relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the 2022 ASEAN-U.S. Special Summit in Washington, D.C. The leaders welcome Lao PDR’s assumption of the ASEAN chair in 2024.
President Biden expresses support for ASEAN’s efforts to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. The leaders continue to call on the regime to end the horrific violence, allow unhindered humanitarian access, release all those unjustly detained, and re-establish Myanmar’s path to inclusive democracy. They reaffirm their continued support for the people of Myanmar, including those who have been displaced, and for ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus.
President Widodo welcomes U.S. support for ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, and acknowledges the value of regional and sub-regional mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions working with ASEAN on specific areas of common interests. President Widodo also welcomes the U.S. role as the host of this year’s APEC forum, and the leaders look forward to the successful conclusion of the United States’ APEC 2023 host year.
Both leaders underscore their unwavering support for freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea and respect for sovereignty and for sovereign rights and jurisdiction of coastal states over their exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in accordance with the international law of the sea, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The United States and Indonesia also recognize the importance of the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in its entirety and reaffirmed their support for ASEAN efforts to conclude an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea that is in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 UNCLOS, and respects the rights and interests of third parties. The leaders note the ruling of the 2016 arbitral tribunal, constituted pursuant to UNCLOS. President Biden and President Widodo welcome the signing of a bilateral Work Plan on Maritime Security Cooperation, which will enhance Indonesia’s maritime security and safety capabilities, and to prevent and counter illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, including those associated with transnational organized criminal groups and labor abuses.
The two leaders exchanged views on the ongoing crisis in Gaza. Each president stated his national position. President Widodo also shared the united messages of the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on 11 November 2023. The leaders agree that they should work together and with other regional partners for a durable peace through a two-state solution.
The leaders discussed the war against Ukraine and call on the Russian Federation to completely withdraw from the territory of Ukraine, underscoring the need to reach a just and lasting peace based on the principles of the United Nations Charter, including the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence of Ukraine.
The United States and Indonesia reaffirm support for the establishment of a durable peace on, and the complete denuclearization of, the Korean peninsula and urge all parties concerned to fully and strictly fulfill their international obligations and commitments, including under relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Deepening U.S.-Indonesia Defense Cooperation
The United States and Indonesia, guided by their shared democratic principles, commit to work to uphold international law, strengthen peacekeeping capacity, and enhance their mutual security and defense capabilities.
The leaders announce their intent to elevate the two countries’ defense partnership through a new Defense Cooperation Arrangement. The two leaders reaffirm the importance of strengthening practical cooperation to address security challenges, including through the regular convening of the Indonesia-U.S. Security Dialogue and the U.S.-Indonesia Bilateral Defense Dialogue, and engagement with non-military stakeholders.
The two Leaders oppose terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and commit to work together to prevent and counter terrorism, including its financing, in a manner consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
Fostering a Long-term Partnership
Looking to the future, the two leaders underscore the need to continue deepening relations through regular exchanges at all levels of government and civil society and improving current dialogue mechanisms, including the Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue between the U.S. Secretary of State and Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Both countries intend to ensure the other can adequately staff and manage diplomatic and consular facilities to support this elevated relationship in accordance with international conventions to which both countries are parties, bilateral agreements between the United States and Indonesia, and the respective laws of both countries.
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