EIIES

             The background of relations between Indonesia and Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is the purpose of strengthening collaboration in the regions and building connectivity among Asian and European countries. The ASEM forum is one of the second largest forum in the world, in which it presents the heads of government of the countries through the high level meeting of ASEM. ASEM is also able to let civil society involve in the forum. Indonesia views the European Union as the axis of political, economic and socio-cultural power and the pioneer of human rights and democracy. As one of the biggest population country in the world, Indonesia also has an issue of increasing and building national capacity in many various sectors. In facing those issues, the relations of Indonesia-ASEM can bring many benefits to Indonesia and becomes the reason why Indonesia should have maintained the ASEM process. Indonesia perceives to enhance tangible cooperation within the ASEM framework.

              During the time, Indonesia has played an active role in various activities .The existence of three pillars such as politic, economic and cultural intellectual in ASEM will help in creating mutual respect, open and equal relations among countries.      The first benefit, ASEM can help to strengthen Indonesia's position in the international world. Second, Indonesia can build economic relations with the European Union through ASEM. Indonesia sees the EU as one of the biggest economic power because in economic terms they have several strong economic countries such as France, German, England, and Italy which are members of G20. ASEM facilitates economic relations between Indonesia and the EU by opening dialogue between its members through the forum. The result is not just a dialogue, but also a space to facilitate Indonesia's national interests for economic development, such as investments and trade.

Through the ASEM Economic Minister Meeting (ASEM EMM) mechanism and the Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF), both the Indonesian government and Indonesian entrepreneurs can raise issues and challenges in EU-Indonesia's trade and investment relations; given that sometimes trade relations between Indonesia and the EU is not going well. The EU has maintained high standards for products which are going to enter the European market. Therefore, there are several Indonesian products which are prohibited from entering the European market, such as the prohibition of Indonesian airplane flights in the European air, the prohibition on the use of palm oil from Indonesia which is considered not environmentally friendly. With the existence of ASEM Indonesia forum, it is expected that it will be easier for Indonesia to access the European market and open the eyes of European countries towards Indonesia as a strategic partner in the Southeast Asia region.

            On the other hand, in line with Indonesia's current development priorities in increasing national capacity in various sectors such as education, agriculture, infrastructure, technology, health and environment, Indonesia will work with the related stakeholders to make this happen. ASEM is increasingly focused on real cooperation to provide tangible benefits to Indonesia nowadays. The high standardization from the European Union will unavoidably make Indonesian enterprises increase their capacity in all sectors. To improve the capacity of human resources, the ASEM collaboration can help in making a real contribution for Indonesian youths by providing trainings and education in many sectors, for example in leadership. The Indonesian people can build competitive skills needed to join in the international community with those trainings. The involvement of the Indonesian people in various ASEM forums has positive impacts.   Lastly, Indonesia can build bilateral relations with partner countries of ASEM in many sectors, which will bring prosperity to Indonesia.