Jakarta. Indonesia welcomes the UK’s plan to formally recognize Palestinian state, and Jakarta hopes more countries will take the same step.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced his decision to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September, unless Israel holds to a ceasefire and commits to the two-state solution. Fellow major economy France has made similar announcements. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, Foreign Minister Sugiono said that Indonesia welcomed the recent wave of recognition.

“We thank both France and the UK for doing so. We hope more countries will follow suit, so we will see actual progress in the two-state solution, and not turn into something that only stops at the discussions,” Sugiono said.

The widely accepted two-state solution sees the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Earlier this week, Sugiono’s deputy minister Arrmanatha Nasir told the New York-based high-level conference on Palestine that such statehood recognition was “not symbolic, but strategic”. 

“Recognizing Palestine is not a favor. It is a duty under international law. To recognize Palestine is to stand for justice,” Arrmanatha said.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy also highlighted that the two-state solution would begin with recognition, as it could pave the way for “genuine peace negotiations” and “end the illegal occupation” by Israeli forces. 

If France and the UK keep their promise, the number of countries that back Palestine in the UN Security Council will increase to four. The other two are China and Russia. This will leave the US as the only permanent member in the council that has not done so. The Security Council is the body’s primary decision-making body that passes legally binding resolutions, including ones related to the Gaza crisis. They will also join the other 147 countries that have already recognized Palestine.

As of today, Palestine is a permanent observer state at the UN. This status allows it to participate in all of the organization’s proceedings except for voting on the draft resolutions.