Obama's trip to Asia -- why is a visit to Indonesia crucial? CSIS posting

http://csis.org/publication/president-obama%E2%80%99s-asia-travel-why-getting-indonesia-matters

U.S. president Barack Obama will visit four countries, attend two summits, and seek to elevate two strategic relationships during his November trip. As he takes flight from Andrews Air Force Base, the president will know the results of U.S. midterm elections and be able to do the calculus on where he needs to go to effectively lead the country in the second half of his first term.

Asia is an important part of that calculation because it is the source of global economic growth—a vital link for sustained U.S. recovery—and a keystone for future American security. In this context, the president will visit India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea—for the G20 Summit and bilateral issues including finalizing the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS)—and Japan for the APEC Leaders’ Summit.
Q1: Why does Indonesia matter to the United States?
A1: Indonesia matters because it is the fourth-largest country in the world, the third-largest democracy, and the incoming ASEAN chair and anchor—since it is at least twice as big in terms of both population and economy than the next largest ASEAN country. It is also home to the largest number of Muslims living under one flag—and its economic development and democratic success story tell an important story about Islam’s clear compatibility with peace, freedom, and prosperity. Getting it right with Indonesia has been a goal for the Obama administration from the beginning. Getting there has been hard—the president has had to postpone his trip three times due to U.S. political pressures. However, there is clear understanding that the United States can’t have a strong relationship with ASEAN without a strong relationship with Indonesia, and the United States has embarked on an Asia strategy that puts ASEAN as the fulcrum of new regional security and trade architecture. The stakes are high in Jakarta.
Q2: What will President Obama do in Jakarta?
A2: The most important accomplishments of his visit to Jakarta will be the following:
1.Reset the tone and tenor of the relationship. Failing three times to come for a visit places a strain on even good relations and resulted in Indonesian president Yudhoyono passing on accepting President Obama’s invitation to the 2nd ASEAN-U.S. Leaders Meeting in New York City in late September. An ASEAN meeting without the Indonesians is suboptimal at best. The visit will realign the world’s third- and fourth-largest countries.
2.Launch the comprehensive partnership. The partnership includes major initiatives in trade and investment, maritime security, counterterrorism, higher education, and climate change cooperation and effectively enhances ties with Indonesia to a substantively new level.
3.Anchor the United States in ASEAN and regional security architecture. Indonesia is chairing ASEAN and will host the East Asia Summit (EAS) next year. Alignment with the chair and host is vital to enable the United States to have input on the agenda and help influence the direction of discussions on key issues ranging from the South China Sea to security cooperation to alignment on transnational issues.
4.Promote compatibility with Islam on a global level. President Obama will make an address at Istiqlal Mosque, addressing Indonesians in a speech described as building on the ideas in his Cairo speech in June 2009, where he called for “a new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world. The president is likely to link the success of efforts by Southeast Asia’s Muslims to sustainable economic models and democratic governance structures.
5.Strengthen security and military-to-military ties with Indonesia. The United States virtually cut off contact with the Indonesian military (referred to by the Indonesian acronym TNI) for nearly two decades over concerns about human rights abuses in East Timor and Aceh under President Soeharto and his immediate successor. The Obama administration has worked to reopen ties by working with President Yudhoyono to secure a promise that his Special Forces unit, Kopassus, would have its members identified with past human right violations punished and would act decisively on any future violations. That commitment is being tested as a video showing members of the Indonesian armed forces beating up separatist activists in West Papua province has appeared on YouTube. President Yudhoyono has called for decisive action to punish those involved. Renewed U.S.-Indonesian military ties are fundamental as a foundation for efforts by U.S. secretary of defense Robert Gates to engage and provide leadership at the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus—a vital new network of the defense ministers from the EAS countries kicked off in Hanoi last month.