ABSTRACT
The Joko Widodo government’s emphasis on tangible gains and top priority to the economic development in its strategic thinking has given a utilitarian character to Indonesia’s great power management. At the heart of Indonesia’s optimalist worldview and resulting equilateral alignment lies the country’s policy of forging strategic partnerships with great powers, a brainchild of Indonesia’s former Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, who served under both the Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presidency. Indonesia’s equilateral alignment is a balance of interest's approach, within which the country has sought to engage both the established and emerging great powers with the several objectives of pursuing its core strategic interests and seeking systemic balance and stability. Indonesia signed its first strategic partnership with Russia in 2003. It signed strategic partnerships with all major powers by 2010 – Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and the USA.
