The birth of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which in fact is one of the foreign and economic policies of the Chinese government which aims to strengthen China's economic influence through a broad and comprehensive program in infrastructure development in all countries along the route, has received a response from the government. "In this case, the Indonesian government responded with a hedging strategy," said source Moch Faisal Karim, Ph.D. in the Friday Talk FISIP UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Friday 19 May 2023 which was held online.

Hedging itself, explained Faisal Karim, is a strategic approach in international relations used by countries to manage uncertainty and risk. This approach involves trying to find a middle way between balancing and bandwagoning strategies . Countries typically hedge to avoid absolute commitments, maintaining flexibility in their alliances and relationships. Hedging also allows a country to engage with another country that has dominant power peacefully, while preparing itself for possible conflict. Hedging involves building economic, political, and military capabilities as a preventative measure. Countries that practice hedging maintain friendly relations with rivals and allies, providing diplomatic options in an ever-changing global landscape.

Furthermore, Faisal Karim argues, using a Marxist geopolitical approach, geo-economic logic is the main driver of foreign policy making and the response of countries in Southeast Asia to China must be seen in the wider geo-economic debate, and not only through traditional geopolitical lens. In the context of Indonesia's response to BRI, the interviewee was of the view that the hedging strategy implemented by Indonesia did not originate from Indonesia's grand strategy but was an incoherent policy born of a process of power struggle that reduced the clarity of the country's grand strategy. In this case, state fragmentation encourages flexibility between institutions within the government which is the cause of the emergence of the hedging strategy adopted by Indonesia on the BRI issue.

This is the common thread presented in the Friday Talk, which was very interesting and was welcomed quite enthusiastically by the 88 participants. Not surprisingly, many questions were asked by them in the question and answer session after the presentation of the material.

This Friday Talk event, which has become routine, began with remarks from the Dean of FISIP, Prof. Dr. Dzuriyatun Toyibah, M.Si, MA was very appreciative of this kind of activity. In his view, this activity is very useful, among other things, as a discussion forum for lecturers and even students. The event itself was moderated by Sociology lecturer at FSIP UIN Jakarta, Iim Halimatusa'diyah, Ph.D. Meanwhile the participants were FISIP lecturers, as well as a number of colleagues from associations such as Apsipol (Indonesian Political Science Study Program Association), APSSI (Indonesian Sociology Study Program Association, and AIHII (Indonesian International Relations Science Association).