Hillary Clinton in Indonesia

The NYT has this report:

Reaching out to the world’s most populous Muslim nation and the boyhood home of her boss, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday, saying she wanted to pay tribute to its hard-won democracy.

“Indonesia has experienced a great transformation in the last 10 years,” she said, hearkening to the Asian financial crisis of 1998, which triggered the ouster of the autocratic regime of President Suharto.

Mrs. Clinton said that her decision to come here — a 3,600-mile detour from her tour of Japan, South Korea, and China — was also driven by a desire to recognize Southeast Asia, a region that senior Obama administration officials said had been neglected by the Bush White House.

The Washington Post regard her visit as a symbolic one:

Clinton’s visit to the world’s most populous Muslim country highlights President Barack Obama’s desire to forge a better U.S. relationship with the Muslim world, where many of the policies of former president George W. Bush’s administration, including the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, were deeply unpopular.

After talks with Indonesia’s foreign minister, Clinton said the two nations intended to move forward in areas ranging from climate change to security and counter-terrorism.

Reuters has a good FAQ on Clinton’s Indonesia visit and US-Indonesia relations.

Tags: america, hillary clinton, Indonesia, Politics

This entry was posted on February 18, 2009 at February 18, 2009 and is filed under Blogger Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Firdaus
February 18, 2009 at 2:25 pm

Welcome to “great” INDONESIA.. mrs.Clinton.

We Welcome You..

ipanks
February 18, 2009 at 3:50 pm

i hope her visit will give good news for indonesian

B.Thomure
February 18, 2009 at 4:38 pm

We want better ties with the Muslims? After the “honor killing” that was just committed here in America! We do not subscribe to such stone age rituals here in this country and we damn sure don’t need better ties with this line of thinking. Mean- while everyone is just so happy about Obama sending his envoy over to his place of childhood, it seems that this should just about prove that his citizenship is not valid as you have to renounce any existing citizenship and become a citizen of that country in order to attend school there. how about it/

#your ignorance towards other cultures ain’t deserve you to take any conclusion on anything you simply don’t know. as that will degrade none but your own credibility

karim
February 19, 2009 at 2:08 am

WE wish Hlary. clinton bring new expectation to indonesia,,, thanks

islamworld
February 19, 2009 at 2:52 am

Semoga mmg ada itikad baik dari Amerika, utk mendekati dunia Islam

zaen
February 19, 2009 at 9:32 am

mudah2an agenda obama untuk berdialog dengan dunia islam bisa terwjud melalui hubungan bilateral yang baik.
bgitu juga hub. amerika dgn IRan dan Amerika Selatan, i.e chile.
semoga

KOESnadi
February 19, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Welcome to Indonesia my country…

sigit arinto
February 19, 2009 at 4:59 pm

she is really bring new atmosphere..

Andika
February 19, 2009 at 5:09 pm

yeah…i saw her on TV with a BIG smile…i don’t know what to think about her…

Zebhi
February 20, 2009 at 3:04 am

Yap, i hope this visited have a lot of advantage for Indonesia.

Not only for politics but also for trading concern too.

Worldtoday
February 21, 2009 at 1:12 pm

Selamat datang Madame, semoga membawa kebaikan

KaLuLa
February 21, 2009 at 5:10 pm

hmm.. i guess her visit just to ascertain that this country still be a ‘good boy’..as usual..
human rights, global market, and terorism encounter, is the same old agenda that always proposed when the other ‘big agenda’ shade behind it..