External publications

Towards ‘Constructive Engagement’: MIKTA and global development

Haug, Sebastian
External Publications (2018)

in: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (ed.), MIKTA: The current condition and way forward, Jakarty: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (reprint)

Reprint of journal article (2017)

Both diplomats and analysts have repeatedly pointed to the area of global development as a promising field for the Mexico-Indonesia-Korea-Turkey-Australia (MIKTA) partnership. As MIKTA countries sit on different sides of traditional divides between ‘Northern donors’ and ‘Southern recipients’, the diversity of its members makes the grouping a potentially unique platform for contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that promote a universal approach to addressing development challenges. So far, MIKTA engagement with development-related issues has been mainly ‘inward-looking’, i.e. focusing on consultation and exchange among the five MIKTA countries themselves. MIKTA’s ‘outward-bound’ engagement with global development – including cooperation with third countries and multilateral organisations – has only started to be discussed in more detail. Against this backdrop, I suggest that a MIKTA Support Scheme for SDG implementation; a MIKTA Trust Fund for development; and a MIKTA Facility for supporting triangular cooperation are concrete examples for how the grouping can build on ongoing processes to provide a potentially ‘constructive’ contribution to the constantly evolving and still highly divided field of global development.