1 April 2018

Bijan Omrani
Editor
Asian Affairs

Dear Editor,

Please find enclosed our manuscript entitled ‘The Indian Ocean’s Position under the Global Maritime
Fulcrum (GMF) Doctrine Established with President Joko Widodo’s Leadership,’ which we request
you to consider for publication as Original Article in Asian Affairs.

This study considers how Indonesia, the biggest maritime nation in the world, can change its
paradigm (started by President Joko Widodo in 2014). He announced his vision for Indonesia being a
Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF) to the world. He focused on five key areas: maritime culture, marine
resources, archipelagic connectivity, maritime diplomacy and naval development. The key idea is to
better exploit its especially its natural resources and strategic location as one of the most important
international trade routes. This paper discusses how Widodo accomplished this objective.

We believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of
interest to its readership. We have approved the manuscript and agree with submission to Asian
Affairs. There are no conflicts of interest to declare. The study was supported by a grant from the
University of Indonesia.

This manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal.
The manuscript has been carefully reviewed by an experienced editor whose first language is English
and who specialises in editing papers written by scientists whose native language is not English.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,
Wira Arif Budiman & Erwin Indradjaja
University of Indonesia
Jl. H. Juanda, Kp. Gudang, Rt 3 / Rw 1, No. 2
Bogor City, 16123, West Java
Indonesia