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Indonesia’s most difficult partner

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Published: January 19th, 2023,
Last updated: May 30th, 2025

Relaxed at the APEC summit despite everything: Presidents Joko Widodo and Xi Jinping
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How does it feel when your most important business partner has been laying claim to part of your land for many years? Ask Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo. His country’s biggest trading partner for the past ten years has been China. At the same time, Beijing keeps sending its coast guard ships into the waters around Indonesia’s Natuna archipelago between Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Parts of this sea lie on the very edge of China’s vast claim area in the South China Sea, with raw materials, such as natural gas, lying dormant underneath.

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Geopolitics South China Sea Indonesia