JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Mere months into his second term, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has finally defined Indonesian foreign policy on his own terms: that diplomacy and international relations shall be exercised primarily in service of bolstering the Indonesian economy and economic resilience.

Last week, Jokowi instructed more than 130 Indonesian heads of overseas missions to funnel from "70 to 80 per cent" of all diplomatic resources into economic diplomacy activities, largely because of the gloomy global economic outlook and the need to make Indonesia more competitive.