ACTUALIZING BLUE ECONOMY: MULTI-TRACK DIPLOMACY IN SUPPORTING INDONESIA – PHILIPPINES OCEAN ECONOMY COOPERATION (2014-2017)

Abstract

Economic development, along with social and environmental sustainability practices have increasingly reinforce their focus on current world agenda, including Indonesia. The roles and potentials of the ocean get a firm spot in Indonesia’s growing concern on sustainable economic development. The utilization of marine potential by considering the long-term calculation between social and the environmental sustainability is then recognized as the Blue Economy concept. Indonesia's geographical condition, which is the largest archipelagic country in the world and is located within the coral triangle region brace Indonesia to have enormous marine potentials and high valuation. Indonesia during the reign of President Joko Widodo committed to develop their economy from the marine sector using blue economic principles, which are contained in its domestic and foreign policy as well as its active participation at the international level. The conditions described in "complex interdependence" show that cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines by involving the role of non-governmental organizations and business stakeholders contribute to solve problems and support the successful implementation of the blue economy. Through a qualitative analytic research method, this thesis finds Indonesia’s diplomacy strategy as the effort to implement blue economy by using Multi-track Diplomacy approach, which focuses on the government (Track I) through the signing of Joint Declaration of Sea Connectivity between the two countries, non-government professional (Track II) through the establishment of the Working Group for Coral Triangle Initiatives involving Non-Governmental Organizations in Indonesia, and business (Track III) through the Coral Triangle Initiatives-Business Forum to the Philippines during the administration of President Joko Widodo in 2014-2017.