Karimun in ACES

The Federation of Karimun officially became a member of the Global ACES program on 1 January 2002 after a year-long negotiation that began in November 2000 and ended in the ratification of the Karimun for Global ACES Ascension Act by the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) of Karimun. After decades of pursuing political neutrality and bilateralism-oriented foreign policy, Karimun began an attempt to redefine its foreign policy from originally driven by strict neutrality, prioritization of bilateral relationships, and active participation in maintaining international peace and cooperation into a foreign policy that aims to integrate Karimun further into the international world, through its politically neutral and unaffiliated participation in international organizations and etcetera, such as the Global ACES program. The acceptance of multilateralism within Karimun's foreign policy is an ever-changing socio-political dynamic within Karimun. In 2020, around 42% of Karimunese show that they trust the multilateral cooperation framework, while 62% of Karimunese show that they would support the continuation of Karimun's membership in the Global ACES program, and an overwhelmingly 89% of Karimunese stated they will support Karimun's withdrawal if its membership in the Global ACES program threatens the strategic autonomy Karimun holds over its foreign and security policy.

History

Karimun's intention to be a member of the Global ACES program began when Partai Kerakyatan, a minuscule political party, proposed a comprehensive reform of Karimum's foreign policy, with the lack of benefits as one of the numerous reasons driving the reform. In 1992, Partai Kerakyatan failed to register in the next election, causing a division between its members. Some of the members resigned from the party's ranks and joined the Partai Progres, where they advocated the same core policies of Partai Kerakyatan. One of the members, Aditya Sastranegara became a prominent member of the Partai Progres's Committee on Foreign and Security Policy. Sastranegara using its position influenced the campaign to include foreign policy reformation. The 1998 election was the first Karimunese election where a political party advocated to change the long-standing foreign policy. Partai Progres gained 16 seats, and became one of the core pawns in the ongoing coalition talk which ended with the party's support towards the incumbent government. The party managed to include two of its members into the governing coalition, one of them was the then Vice Minister of Foreign Policy, Benny Akanua. Akanua suggested a series of foreign policy reforms that were mostly opposed, except the inclusion of multilateralism within Karimun's foreign policy. After some deliberations, Akanua managed to gain the approval of the president and in October 1999, the Karimunese government approved the creation of a committee to assess its conditions and design an application for an ACES membership originally as the definition of "Central Ecros" region was being debated but changed its intention to join the Global ACES program instead. In May 2000, the Expertise Council on Foreign Policy cleared the 1999 Committee's report out of any allegation and proposed it to the Federal Government in early June of the same year. It took 3 months for the Federal Government to publicly announce its intention to join the Global ACES program. Following the Karimunese Constitution, the DPR ratified the law that would empower the Federal Government to represent Karimun in the Global ACES ascension process. A survey held three days after the announcement by the Statistics Bureau stated that 31% urged the government to reconsider its options.

In November 2000, the Karimunese Minister of Foreign Affairs flew to Kivu and Terranihil where it held talks with the national governments there regarding its bilateral relations before arriving in Jackson to directly submit the application to the headquarter of ACES. Months after, Karimun got accepted by ACES and the DPR parliament ratified it for a second time under the title "Karimun for Global ACES Ascension Act".