Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, Professor Andrew F. Cooper speaks through his lens about Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Both regarding its impact on ASEAN and highlighting the issue of US-China rivalry in the Indo-Pacific region.

He did not fail to reveal the correlation between his country of birth and Indonesia. Professor Andrew Cooper spoke about the long historical relationship between Indonesia and Canada. Then tie it to the policy of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Professor Andrew Cooper highlighted that people-to-people connections are a key priority of Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

“I think the most important thing is building relationships between people. In many ways, even though Canadians and Indonesians live in very different climates and histories, Canada is part of NATO, so is a very diverse Western country.”

“At the same time, Indonesia has a long tradition on the world stage as a southern country included in the developing country category.”

Andrew Cooper considers Indonesia to be a good partner for Canada. Not without reason, he said that Canada not only has an embassy in Jakarta, but also because of the level of acceptance and support that Canada shows in Jakarta.

“In my opinion, this shows that we accept and respect Indonesia’s important role in international affairs,” Andrew Cooper said.

“We need to work hard in Indonesia to understand other countries, because the younger generation has a variety of important perspectives. In some countries like Bhutan and Myanmar, there is a sense of disappointment with certain aspects of the government, etc.,” Andrew said.

Apart from that, here is a complete explanation of Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy and Indonesia’s important role in this policy, in the special interview session of the Global channel program. Liputan6.com: