Indonesia Announces New Diplomatic Ties With Nauru

Indonesia has established diplomatic ties with the South Pacific island
nation of Nauru, in what the Indonesian government said was an effort to expand
opportunities and strengthen ties between the two countries.

Observers, however, praised Indonesia’s move as a bold measure to
suppress support for a movement to separate West Papua from Indonesia as
the Pacific Islands Forum, a meeting of countries in the pacific that
regularly discusses about the fate of West Papua, strengthen its cloud
with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attending the event in
September.

Indonesia Announces New Diplomatic Ties With Nauru

Jakarta Globe

Indonesia has established diplomatic ties with the South Pacific island nation of Nauru, in a bid to expand opportunities and strengthen ties between the two countries.

Desra Percaya, Indonesia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said he expected the opening of these diplomatic relations would lead to more opportunities and deepen cooperation in various sectors, especially in the fields of climate change, disaster risk management and South-South cooperation.

Nauru is the 183rd member of 193 members states of the United Nations with which Indonesia has established diplomatic relationships. Indonesia had already officiated diplomatic ties with Botswana, Tuvalu and Haiti earlier this year.

Desra and Nauru’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Marlene Moses, marked the occasion with the signing of a joint communique in New York last Friday.

Moses expressed hope that Indonesia would continue to help the small Pacific nations voice their needs in global environmental forums.

“One thing that the Pacific people really remember and appreciate was when Indonesia led a discussion on a climate change resolution in a UN forum, which results in an agreement in line with the interests of Pacific countries, especially in the context of global warming, which threatens the existence of these countries,” Moses said in a statement released on the weekend.

Nauru drew the attention of Indonesia’s media in August after Australia re-opened its detention center in the small island nation to process asylum seekers and refugees arriving by boat to Australia. Indonesia has been a major transit country for these people trying to reach Australia.

In November, an Amnesty International team visited the Nauru camp and described it as “a human rights catastrophe … a toxic mix of uncertainty, unlawful detention and inhumane conditions.”