 Good morning. I'm Ernie Bauer, the senior advisor and director of the Southeast Asia program here at CSIS and we are very lucky this morning to have the Indonesian ambassador to the United States and actually a good friend of mine, Dino Dijal with us. Good morning, Dino. Good morning, Ernie. How are you? I'm very good. Very good. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. I wanted to ask you a little bit about Indonesia and what's happening there. We'll talk a little bit about the relationship and then Indonesia's role globally and regionally. First of all, could you tell the audience for those who aren't familiar with Indonesia sort of what is Indonesia? What's your size? What's your outlook? Well, thank you. Indonesia now is, we call ourselves the emerging economy. We used to be called Third World. Now we proudly call ourselves the emerging economy and G20 economy. There's in fact a new profile about Indonesia that is different than say 20 or 30 years ago. Indonesia now is the world's third largest democracy with the largest country in Southeast Asia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia. We have the largest young people in Asia and in fact many of them are, we have number three users, if not maybe even number two of Facebook's and also among the top five in the use of Twitter's. So very large, hip and optimistic young people. You're a tweeter yourself, aren't you? Yeah, I have a Twitter account. I notice you've got a huge following on Twitter too. I got about 42,000 last time I checked, so I'm quite happy with it. That's great. So on the US-Indonesia relationship, in the past it's been sort of suspicious, but now you seem to have transformed it into something very, it's very important for us. I know. Could you talk a little bit about where the relationship is? Well, the relationship now has reached a new level, opened a new era. It's called a comprehensive partnership and this was inaugurated during President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia last year in November and which was a very historic visit. He was received like a rock star. He gave a very big speech at the University of Indonesia and it was watched live on TV by the whole nation and it was the speech that also redefined the relationship between Indonesia and America. This relationship is meant to be comprehensive and that is not driven by a single issue, as it seemed to feel in the past. It's supposed to be forward-looking, that is based on shared ideals and common interests and it's also not just a bilateral relationship, it's supposed to be a relationship that matters regionally and in a global context. There's a lot of global issues that we can work with, issues such as climate change, the environment, people smuggling, terrorism, reforming the financial architecture and so on. So it's totally a new relationship based on the fact that both America and Indonesia are different nations now and they have to function in a different world setting, the brave new world where both Indonesia and America has to reposition itself and in that process of repositioning ourselves, we are finding greater relevance in the way we build our partnership. You know, Americans have seemed to have fallen a little bit behind in terms of China in the region. Is that true in Indonesia and there are areas where you think we should focus on to sort of catch up? Well, thanks for bringing it up because one of my lines here is that when America thinks of Asia, think of Indonesia because I think the tendency has been to think of China or Japan and to some extent India, but there's Indonesia and there's ASEAN. So it is important for America, especially for the American public to know that. But definitely one area that needs to be sped up is the education. I think we need more Indonesian students here. The number has declined by half already, you know, and we need to redouble that. The thing is, in a short and medium term, no one can still match America's innovation and centers of excellence and universities. Your MITs, your Harvard and Silicon Valley, you know. And the trick is how to get Indonesians to connect to these amazing resources. So I hope we can get more. I agree with you 100%. You know, Indonesia has actually been through a great transition over the last decade or so, two decades, we should say. But you know, you've really moved to become, as you say, a democracy, third-largest democracy in the world. How does that affect Indonesia's outlook now that you are chairman of ASEAN, your chair of the East Asia Summit this year, you're now a member of the G20? What does it mean? What is the Indonesian outlook for foreign affairs? Well, I mean several things. First, at the macro level, we experienced something very new. And in fact, quite strange, even, because for the first time we look at the international landscape, we realize we have no more enemies, no more state enemies. There's no country that we regard as enemy, and there's no country that regards Indonesia as an enemy, right? So this is different, because in the past there's always been some country that we regard as enemy or adversary. So we are in a very unique strategic landscape. Secondly, on the question of democracy, we realize that we are proud to be a democracy, and we want democracy and human rights to be reflected in regional values and international values. So we're not sure about it when we design the ASEAN charter. We've always insisted that democratic principles and respect for human rights must be at the heart of this ASEAN spirit, no matter what political system you have. And fortunately, this has transpired. But we also realize our limitations. Our method is usually a soft sell, Ernie. That means that we're not really in the business of exporting our democracy or imposing on others, but it's more on lessons learned and a soft approach. One way is, for example, in the Bali Democracy Forum, which has been rather successful going on several years, and we invite countries to come and discuss their experience with democracy with one another. I think that is given our size and our resources and assets. That is the best way for us to promote democracy with soft sell in a humble way. You've been very active with the embassy and sort of spreading Indonesian soft power, if I might say. Anything you want to mention to some of our viewers in terms of some initiatives that you have coming up? Well, yeah. Well, first send me some more jokes, because I know that the best way to talk to Americans is you've got to talk some jokes first. I'm running out of jokes there. Well, secondly, we are launching this thing called the One Million Friends and Partner Campaign. That is a program where we want... In the last six months, I've traveled to other America. I've seen a lot of Indonesians and Americans, but their dots are not connected. There are no one another. And we want to establish more than just friends of Indonesia. We want to establish the Indonesian network, which is the next level. And we hope anybody who has anything to do with Indonesia, whether you like our food, you like our movies, you like our boutique, or you have business in Indonesia, please join the Indonesian network. And we're also starting some things at the very grassroots level. We have the Skype Friends Indonesia USA, which means we connect elementary schools in America with Indonesia and have them and have conversations. It's a great use of technology to connect people, connect the dots. Skype is free also. It's free too. It's good. One last question. You know the United States well. You went to school here, and our president actually knows Indonesia well. He went to school there in Indonesia. If you were advising him ahead of his visit to Indonesia this coming up this fall, you know, Mr. President, how you ought to think about these three things as you approach your visit to Indonesia this fall, and a lot of that includes some regional summits. What would be your advice to President Obama? Well, I would tell him that since his last visit, there has been a tremendous reservoir of goodwill and affection towards the United States. So that is a good thing, and that is something that we must harness now. Secondly, I think focus on soft power issues. I think there has been an image in the past that America's relationship had been represented by hard power issues, you know, military restrictions and all kinds of hard power issues. But now I think I would pick three. One is definitely education, because that's a game changer, and through education you invest in Indonesia's future and also in America's future. I graduated from American high school, and so my father graduated from American university. We are invested in this relationship, right? So one is education, second is entrepreneurship. There's now religion in Indonesia with entrepreneurship. It's the new thing, and if any force can change Indonesia's future, like in any country in the world, it is entrepreneurship. Because when you produce entrepreneurs, you produce people who provide jobs, not seek jobs. And third is the environment. You know, we have the third largest forestry, tropical rainforest in the world. We are called environmental superpower, so there's a lot of work that can be done, both in clean energy and forestry preservation and so on and so on. Because Indonesia has the most capacity to absorb the greenhouse emissions, and America is the largest greenhouse emitter in the world, right? So the cooperation within our countries can also be very relevant. Ambassador Dino Dujal, thank you for coming to CSIS. Thank you. I want to also compliment you on an amazing work that you've done. I really enjoy your bi-weekly emails about Southeast Asia. It's a work of high quality, and please keep them coming. I really enjoy reading them. We will do. Thank you very much, sir.