Acting Presidency of Suharto - Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

The idea of pooling together the nations of South-East Asia into one organization came from Thanat Khoman the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs. He suggested the idea to Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adam Malik who promised to bring it up with Suharto. Suharto was interested in the idea and sent Malik to a conference in Thailand in August 1967. The conference was also attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines. On 8 August 1967, the five Ministers signed the Bangkok Declaration which marked the formation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The declaration called among other things for the cooperation to help accelerate economic growth and promote stability in the region.

The reversal of Sukarno's policy of Confrontation with Malaysia was completed with the establishment of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Malaysia in early September 1967. At the same time, diplomatic relations were also established with Singapore with the opening of an Indonesian Embassy there. Running contrary to these two diplomatic successes was the deterioration of Indonesia's relationship with the People's Republic of China. The perception of the Indonesian Government was that China had backed the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The deterioration was not helped by the fact that the response to Indonesia's suspicion was the ideological zeal of China's Cultural Revolution. In October 1967, Indonesia announced that it was freezing diplomatic relations with China.

The emergence of Suharto as Acting President was well received by the West, who was keen to not only invest but give aid. Relationship with the Soviet Bloc cooled down but nevertheless, Suharto would work towards repaying the debt incurred during the Sukarno Government. More details can be seen later in this article.