In many countries, energy diplomacy is usually carried out by the national government as the primary unit, through bilateral or multilateral agreements. However, it seems that Surabaya and Kitakyushu’s cities have carried out intensive cooperation in the energy sector since the 2010s. This condition shows that the implementation of energy diplomacy has also been conducted at the substate level. Even though it focuses on the active role of the two cities, the meaning of energy diplomacy has not disappeared, but instead, it has expanded. This paper analyzes the City of Surabaya, Indonesia, approaches toward the City of Kitakyushu, Japan, in developing the energy sector, especially to strive for an energy-efficient city planning system in Surabaya. This paper’s analytical framework is based on energy diplomacy and diplomacy by sub-national actors in international relations. The finding of this study is that the diplomacy carried out by the City of Surabaya toward Kitakyushu is classified as a practice of energy diplomacy. The diplomacy is carried out through a sister city approach.
Indonesia an archipelagic country positioned between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, created Indonesia's strategic position. Particularly in the Papua region as a potential international trade route. Considering the vital location and abundant resources, Papua has the capability as an international trade route that connects Indonesia's trade routes with the Pacific region. In a geopolitical perspective, communication line connectivity is the key for Indonesia to increase Indonesia's influence in trade relations in the Pacific region. Papua's position, which is directly adjacent to pacific countries considered to have strategic potential that can be the gateway to Indonesia-Pacific trade. Indonesia's presence in the Pacific region, through the connectivity of the Papua-Pacific trade route considered to be an important part of Indonesia's geopolitical maneuvers amid great power competition in the Pacific region. Through qualitative research methods and geopolitical analysis put forward by Jakub Grygiel, this research will strive to provide a recommendation of trade route connectivity strategy in Papua region by building land and maritime trade routes that have great potential for Indonesia's trade routes with the Pacific region.
China is a very active country in building energy diplomacy relations towards Russia. Since the end of the Cold War, the intensity of energy relations between the two countries has been increasing, one of which is related to the Eastern Siberian pipeline project. The Eastern Siberian pipeline project is a strategic project for China to maintain the stability of their energy security in the future. This is what makes China under the leadership of Xi Jinping, increasingly seeking to improve their energy diplomacy relations towards Russia in an effort to develop the Eastern Siberian pipeline project which includes two major projects, specifically oil pipeline through the Eastern Siberian Pasific Ocean (ESPO) and the natural gas pipeline through the Power of Siberia. Using qualitative research methods and literature reviews, the authors sought to provide an in-depth analysis of China's implementation of energy diplomacy against Russia in the development of the Eastern Siberian pipeline. China's energy diplomacy towards Russia is part of efforts to diversify China's energy imports many involving actors of China's national energy companies. This research also proves that energy cooperation relationships are not only built within bilateral frameworks but also in multilateral frameworks as part of China-Russia efforts to accelerate the development of the Eastern Siberian pipeline.
Summary Energy diplomacy is usually conducted by national governments. However, the case of sister city co-operation between the cities of Surabaya, Indonesia, and Kitakyushu, Japan, shows how substate actors can perform energy diplomacy by developing technology to create public spaces that apply energy efficiency and energy-saving principles. This article offers a new angle on energy diplomacy by elaborating on the role of the city government. To future-proof our perspective, we applied qualitative methods by gaining data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, then triangulated the result from the literature about energy diplomacy. The article argues that energy diplomacy has expanded in the sense that it is now carried out at municipal as well as national level and yet still adheres to states’ foreign policy agendas in the energy sector. These substate actors ultimately strengthen the principle of energy utilisation that has been regulated at the national level within the framework of bilateral co-operation with other substate actors.
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