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Updated December  4, 2020


Indonesia


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With 270 million citizens, Indonesia is the most populous
country in Southeast Asia, the world's most populous
Muslim-majority nation, and the world's third-largest
democracy  (after India and the United States). It has the
world's 16t-largest economy and the 10t-largest when
ranked by purchasing power parity. It straddles important
sea lanes and borders the Strait of Malacca, one of the
world's busiest trade routes, as well as the Indian Ocean
and the South China Sea.

Over the past two decades, Indonesia has become a robust
democracy, holding four direct presidential elections, each
considered by international observers to have been largely
free and fair. In the most recent, held in April 2019,
President Joko Widodo was reelected to a second five-year
term. The U.S.-Indonesia security relationship has
broadened in recent years, with closer military and
counterterrorism cooperation and a range of new
educational, environmental, and energy initiatives that were
initiated in the Obama Administration. However,
Indonesia's foreign policy is guided by its historical role as
a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and successive
Indonesian governments have bristled at the notion of
aligning too closely with the United States or with others,
including China. Indonesia is an active member in regional
diplomatic institutions and a leader of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has a Secretariat
based in Jakarta.

Some  87%  of Indonesians are Muslim, with the vast
majority subscribing to moderate, syncretic forms of the
religion. Religious diversity is enshrined in the constitution.
Some  observers, however, express concern about growing
political influence of conservative religious groups who
have organized mass demonstrations against non-Muslim
politicians. Indonesia also has a recent history of violent
extremism: several bombings in Jakarta and tourist center
Bali targeted Westerners in the 2000s, and the persistence
of smaller-scale attacks raises concerns about the dangers
posed by Indonesians returning from the Middle East.

Indonesia is increasingly involved in rising South China
Sea tensions. Although the two nations do not dispute
sovereignty over any land features, China's extensive nine-
dash line claims overlap with Indonesia's Exclusive
Economic  Zone (EEZ), the coastal area over which a state
has the right to regulate economic activity. Indonesian
authorities have periodically confronted or warned off
Chinese fishing and law-enforcement vessels seen as
encroaching on Indonesian waters. In 2017, Indonesia
elicited a formal diplomatic protest from Beijing by
renaming waters off the Natuna Islands, north of Borneo,
the North Natuna Sea. In May 2020, Jakarta angered China
with a formal submission to the United Nations Convention


on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), supporting an UNCLOS
ruling that criticized aspects of China's maritime claims and
behavior in the region.


President Widodo, universally known by his nickname
Jokowi, was reelected in April 2019 elections, winning
55%  of the popular vote. He campaigned on promises to
improve Indonesia's infrastructure and raise living
standards, particularly in underdeveloped areas. He has
delivered on some of those promises, enacting several
economic reform packages aimed at streamlining
bureaucratic processes to boost foreign and domestic
investment. However, poverty and uneven economic
development remain major issues. Indonesia has been hit
hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 430,000 cases
as of early November 2020, the largest number in Southeast
Asia. Indonesia also has Southeast Asia's second highest
COVID-19   mortality rate, after the Philippines.


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