ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Indonesian President Replaces Foreign Minister With Career Diplomat

The appointment of Arrmanatha Nasir is likely to result in a reassertion of the Foreign Ministry’s role in Indonesian foreign policymaking.

Arrmanatha Nasir, Indonesia’s vice minister for foreign affairs, speaks during the 16th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD16) in Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 21, 2025.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has replaced his foreign minister with a career diplomat, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw more than a dozen other posts change hands.

In yesterday’s reshuffle, Prabowo appointed Arrmanatha Nasir, Indonesia’s former permanent representative to ‌the United Nations in New York, as the country’s new foreign minister. The outgoing foreign minister, Sugiono, was shifted to the post of coordinating minister for human development.

In this latest change to his “Red and White Cabinet,” Prabowo appointed three new coordinating ministers and a new minister of industry. He also reshuffled a handful of deputy ministerial posts and leadership positions at major government agencies, including the National Police and the office of the Ombudsman.

The changeover at the top of Kemlu, however, was the most significant position to change hands, and the second major cabinet change ​in the past few weeks.

In mid-September, Prabowo removed his finance minister, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and replaced him with ​his deputy, Suahasil Nazara, amid growing investor concern about Indonesia’s economic trajectory.

Arrmanatha Nasir comes to the post with years of experience, having joined Kemlu in 1997. Since then, he has risen through the ranks, serving as the Ministry’s spokesperson between 2014 and 2019, Indonesia’s ambassador to France (2019-2021) and Indonesia’s ambassador to the U.N. (2021-2024). He was then appointed vice foreign minister when Prabowo took office.

After taking his oath of office yesterday, Arrmanatha said that his priorities included “maintaining ​stability in the region and promoting multilateralism,” Reuters reported.

Arrmanatha’s advent is likely to mark a significant change in the process of Indonesian foreign policymaking. His predecessor Sugiono was a political novice who came to the post with little hands-on experience in foreign affairs. While he served as the deputy head of the parliamentary commission overseeing foreign........

© The Diplomat