Africa: African Leaders Snub Indonesian Summit in Favor of China Visits

Singapore — Indonesia has looked this week to boost trade ties with African nations during a summit in Bali, although many leaders from the continent stayed away, instead opting to visit China for a high-profile forum in Beijing.

Representatives from 29 African nations headed to the Indonesian resort island, well-short of the 47 countries that were represented during the inaugural Indonesia-Africa forum in 2018.

Despite this, the Southeast Asian country is hoping to have sealed $3.5 billion worth of business deals from the three-day forum, according to President Joko Widodo.

As the summit concluded Tuesday, some of the delegates headed to Beijing to join a larger representation of African leaders for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Fifty African countries are slated to be represented at the forum in the Chinese capital, which takes place every third year.

“Between Indonesia and China, the major African leaders chose China to be present at,” said Christophe Dorigne-Thomson, an Indonesia-based foreign affairs academic.

“That doesn’t mean that the collaboration with Indonesia and the forum does not have important discussions and important outcomes. But symbolically, for sure, the choice was made for China,” Dorigne-Thomson told VOA.

Relations between Indonesia and the African continent date back to at least 1955, when former Indonesian President Sukarno hosted the Asian-Africa conference in the city of Bandung. Most of the African states represented were newly independent.

“Jakarta can boast history and a legacy of relationship that stretches back to the Bandung Conference,” said Elina Noor, senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Indonesia has really sought to leverage on that historical relationship to recall the spirit of Bandung – it’s part of the theme at this year’s Indonesia-Africa forum,” Noor told VOA.

While the historical ties have allowed for decades of solid relations, Dorigne-Thomson says Indonesia’s interest in Africa increased when President Joko Widodo took office in 2014, adding that “the main focus is on the economy.”

The Indonesian government said that roughly $600 million of deals were signed during the inaugural Indonesia-Africa summit in 2018.

This year, they have targeted nearly six-times that amount as they look to boost economic links with African countries.

“There seem to be some concrete MOU’s (memorandum of understanding) and letters of intent, like Indonesia’s aircraft industry signing deals with several countries and the oil companies also signing deals,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, senior researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency.

Despite these agreements, Anwar said she’s “not sure whether the $35 billion target will be realized,” largely because of the lack of procedures to track the various deals and ensure they are developed and concluded in the years ahead.

Announcements from the summit include an agreement between Indonesia’s Energi Mega Persada and Guma Africa Group for a gas project in South Africa that could be worth up to $900 million.

The project is aimed at increasing gas supplies to South Africa and Mozambique, with the two companies also agreeing to develop a new gas power plant.

Such eye-catching deals generate a lot of attention, but, according to Noor, much of the business at this summit comes in the form of smaller agreements.

“On the Indonesian side, a lot of the businesses in the country comprise micro, small and medium enterprises,” Noor told VOA. “I think it’s particularly important that we keep this in mind, because a lot of the headlines tend to just focus on the large corporations.”

Though deal-making at this summit presents Indonesia opportunities to expand its export markets, the country is also looking to secure import deals with African nations to boost lithium supplies.

The Southeast Asian nation has a booming nickel industry but needs lithium as another key component for assembling and producing batteries for electric vehicles.

“Africa is an ideal partner due to its wealth of critical minerals, which Indonesia seeks to access. Indonesia’s rapid industrialization also creates a growing demand for African commodities,” said Sharyn Davies, director of the Herb Feith Indonesia Centre at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Opening new trade avenues with Africa also provides Indonesia with a chance to diversify away from traditional trading partners including the US and China.

As tensions continue to simmer between the world’s two biggest economies, Davies believes that Africa could be “a way for Indonesia to sidestep from picking sides between China and the US.”

While the main focus of the Bali forum was business, politics was also at play.

President Widodo has looked to enhance Indonesia’s standing on the international stage, promoting his country as a voice of the Global South.

“Indonesia is not a follower in the Global South movement; it’s been very much one of the founding members,” Anwar, the researcher in Indonesia, told VOA. “The difference is that Indonesia also stresses the importance of, not just South-South cooperation, but also North-South cooperation. Indonesia sees itself as a bridge builder.”