Wantiknas Urges a ‘Middle Way’ AI Coalition of Countries Beyond the US and China

Indonesia should build sovereign artificial intelligence by joining forces with countries outside the United States and China, the National ICT Council, known as Wantiknas, said on October 30, according to Bisnis.com. Ilham Akbar Habibie, who heads the council’s executive team, made the case at a discussion titled “Indonesia’s Digital Sovereignty: Realistic or Utopian?” at the Habibie & Ainun Library in Jakarta.

Ilham said the global AI ecosystem is tilting towards domination by the two superpowers, which could leave other countries, Indonesia included, with limited choices. As an alternative, Wantiknas and the Habibie Center are proposing what they call a middle way: a coalition of non-US, non-China countries that would develop AI systems of comparable level and quality. He named Japan, India and European countries, including Sweden and the United Kingdom, as possible partners with enough technological capacity.

He pointed to the risk of sudden changes in access, citing a US decision that he said limited a leading cloud service to users holding American passports. If Indonesia’s economy grows more dependent on AI supplied by others, he argued, there is no guarantee that access will remain open, so it is better to have alternatives.

What it means in practice

Ilham was careful to say sovereignty does not mean building everything at home, which he called unrealistic. In his view it means having choices and not being in a position to be dictated to. He compared AI with cloud computing, where providers such as Google, AWS and Cloudflare compete, and telecoms equipment, where Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei give operators options. Fair competition, he said, makes dependence more balanced.

The argument adds a diplomatic angle to a debate that has mostly focused on domestic capacity. Communication and digital minister Meutya Hafid has said Indonesia must set its own pace for AI development, and Bank Indonesia has urged sovereign control of AI used in finance. Cooperation beyond the two giants already has a model in Korika and AI Singapore’s Project Nusa for trusted, locally grounded AI.

What to watch next is whether the government takes up the coalition idea in talks with Japan, India or European partners, which strategic sectors are named as off-limits for heavy foreign dependence, and how the proposal fits into the national AI rules now being drafted.