Xi Jinping's recent visit to Seattle, Washington and New York generated the usual acreage of reporting and commentary in American media.
But did anyone take notice of Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo when he visited Washington last week? One has to wonder. For sure, foreign presidential visits to the United States come thick and fast this time of year. But are U.S. politicians, policymakers and media so myopic that they fail to give due importance to the largest nation in Southeast Asia?
Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country with a secular constitution and a democratic political process. It is the world's largest archipelagic country — within which are some of the world's most important straits, Melaka, Makassar, Sunda — all of these easily choked arteries of global commerce for 2,000 years.