What Indonesia’s new foreign minister must do in the Middle East

On October 1, President Prabowo Subianto named Arrmanatha Nasir as Indonesia’s new foreign minister. Unlike Sugiono, the politician he replaces, Arrmanatha is a career diplomat who once served as Indonesia’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Analysts have said the foreign ministry was pushed aside in recent years while the president made most decisions himself. Many now hope the ministry will have a stronger voice again.

One of the first places to use that voice is the Middle East and North Africa, the region from Morocco to Iran. Indonesians are tied to it through faith, work, trade and energy, and almost all of these ties are now under strain.

Here are six things the new minister should do.

First, he should ask the president to reconsider Indonesia’s place in the Board of Peace, a group set up by US President Donald Trump to run Gaza after the war.

Prabowo has pledged 8,000 or more Indonesian soldiers for its new force in Gaza, and Indonesia accepted the job of deputy commander.

But this is not a normal United Nations peacekeeping mission. Rights groups have warned that it could put Indonesia on the wrong side of international law. Indonesian soldiers could end up enforcing a plan that Palestinians did not help write.

Indonesia has a proud record in UN peacekeeping. It should send troops to Gaza only under a clear UN mission that Palestinians accept. Until then, the deployment should be paused.

Second, Indonesia should begin to consider one Palestinian state. For decades, Jakarta has supported a two-state solution, meaning a Palestinian state living next to Israel.

But in September 2025, a United Nations inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects this finding. After so much killing and destruction, a small and divided Palestinian state next to Israel looks less real every year.

Indonesia should start talking with Arab and Muslim partners about one Palestinian state across the land, where Muslims, Christians and Jews live with equal rights. This debate will take years, but Indonesia can help begin it.

Third, Indonesia must pay closer attention to the wars in Iran and Yemen, and play a more active role in ending them.

Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route, have come under fire, and a peace deal made in June collapsed within weeks.

In September, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are close to Iran, seized the country’s whole Red Sea coast, putting a second major sea route at risk. Both routes matter for Indonesia’s fuel prices and exports.

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Indonesia can talk to Tehran, the Gulf capitals and Washington, so it should not just watch from far away. The minister should offer to help with talks, push for ceasefires, and support peace efforts in Yemen. He should also keep plans ready to bring Indonesians home.

Fourth, he must strengthen economic ties, starting with the slow trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six Gulf countries that includes Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Talks started in July 2024. About 90 percent of the text is agreed, but the hardest parts are still open. On September 30, Indonesia’s trade minister was still asking Saudi Arabia for help to speed things up.

Indonesia’s trade with these six countries is only about 3 percent of its total trade. Britain signed its own deal with the Gulf in May.

The minister should push this deal over the line himself, bring more Gulf investment into Indonesian food and halal industries, and open new markets in Egypt and North Africa.

Fifth, he should make energy ties with the region greener. Gulf countries have money and want to depend less on oil.

Indonesia has sun, wind and the minerals used in batteries. Some projects already show what is possible.

The UAE company Masdar helped build the Cirata floating solar plant in West Java and plans to make it much larger. Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is developing a green hydrogen project worth about 1 billion US dollars with Indonesian state companies.

The minister should put clean energy at the top of every Gulf visit, so that the region becomes a partner in Indonesia’s energy future, and not only a seller of oil.

Sixth, he should bring people closer. In 2024, about 13,000 Indonesians studied at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and Indonesia sends more Hajj pilgrims than any other country.

But most exchanges are religious and flow in one direction. The minister should push for more scholarships in science and technology, more visits by young leaders, journalists and artists, and easier visas in both directions.

He must also protect Indonesian workers. Indonesia lifted its ban on sending workers to Saudi Arabia in 2025, yet complaints there remain among the highest. Indonesian embassies need more staff and faster legal help.

Arrmanatha has often repeated the president’s favourite line on foreign policy: a thousand friends are too few, and one enemy is too many.

In the Middle East, real friendship means being honest. It means telling Washington when its plans for Gaza are wrong, and telling Gulf partners when Indonesian workers are treated badly.

The new minister should judge his success by simple results. A worker in Riyadh who gets paid on time. A student who comes home from Cairo with new skills. A solar farm built with Gulf money. And a Palestinian people who are finally free.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.