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What’s worrying about Prabowo’s ‘free and hyper-active’ foray into South China Sea claims
Foreign policy community back home fears the new president has given too much away to China in a departure from longstanding policy.
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The foreign policy community back home fears Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has given too much away to China in a departure from longstanding policy.
PHOTO: AFP
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It is not uncommon for new leaders, especially those who come through with strong mandates, to allow themselves to believe that their popularity with the home crowd can be ported across to the field of foreign relations in the quest to find solutions to thorny issues.
President Rodrigo Duterte did so in his attempt to reset the Philippines’ relations with China, India’s Narendra Modi tried the same with Pakistan. But before long, wisdom dawns as the airborne trajectories of such ambitions are brought down to earth by the weight of national interests, the cautionary warnings of bureaucrats and their institutional memory, and the hard realities of global politics. Balance is restored.
