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1 1 (June 11, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepsv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service infoirning the Ieg~sIaave debate since 1914 Updated June 11, 2024 Indonesia Overview With over 280 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 16thlargest economy-the 7th-largest when ranked by purchasing power parity. It straddles vital 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 25 years, Indonesia has become a robust democracy, holding five direct presidential elections, each considered by international observers to have been largely free and fair. In the most recent, held in February 2024, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto was elected to succeed President Joko Widodo. Prabowo is scheduled to take office in October. His Vice President- elect is Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. The U.S.-Indonesia relationship has broadened over the past two decades, with closer military and counterterrorism cooperation and a range of new educational, environmental, and energy programs initiated during the Obama Administration. Congress has played a key role in guiding the relationship, including by restricting interactions with security services accused of rights abuses, promoting cooperation on issues such as maritime security and counterterrorism, and conducting oversight of programs, including Indonesia's Millennium Challenge Compact. Indonesia's foreign policy is guided by its historical role as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and successive Indonesian governments have resisted aligning too closely with the United States or others, including the Peoples Republic of China (PRC or China). Indonesia is an active member in regional diplomatic institutions, and served as the 2022 chair of the Group of 20 (G-20) and the 2023 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Some 87% of Indonesians are Muslim, with the vast majority subscribing to moderate, syncretic forms of Sunni Islam. Religious diversity is enshrined in the constitution. Some observers express concern about growing political influence of conservative religious groups. Non-Sunni Muslims and other religious minorities have been targets of violence, and some conservative groups have organized mass demonstrations against non-Muslim politicians. Indonesia also has a history of violent extremism: several bombings in Jakarta and Bali targeted Westerners in the 2000s, and smaller-scale attacks have occurred periodically. 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 periodically confront or warn off PRC 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. More recently, PRC Coast Guard vessels reportedly have harassed Indonesian energy exploration vessels in the South China Sea more frequently, and have accompanied fleets of PRC fishing vessels into Indonesia's EEZ. Poitica Background On February 14, 2024, over 200 million Indonesians voted in presidential, parliamentary, and local elections-the world's largest one-day democratic exercise-and selected Defense Minister Prabowo as president. Prabowo, the ex- son-in-law of the country's former authoritarian president Suharto, is a former general who was removed from the military in 1998 for allegedly torturing political activists, and who was implicated in 1999 violence in Timor-Leste. A scion of a wealthy Indonesian family, Prabowo campaigned on promises to continue the economic development policies of President Widodo, who remains popular. He has also advocated a more active foreign policy for Indonesia, although he has not outlined specifics of that role. Figure I. Indonesia President Widodo tacitly supported Prabowo's campaign, and many analysts expect the new government to continue Widodo's populist focus on economic development. One of Widodo's signature initiatives is a plan to move Indonesia's

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