Our oceans are under the threat of climate change — marked by damage to coral reefs in various parts of the world and ocean acidification. Humans have played a large part in sea damage through pollution from ships, from land, mining at sea, as well as irresponsible fisheries exploitation.

The combination of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the oil collapse has created new threats to the economy, along with political instability and poverty in countries reliant on oil sales. The oil price war could be traced back to when OPEC producers tried to negotiate a production cut in line with a global demand slowdown and this condition has led to the oil price crash. With lockdown measures being implemented in 187 countries – bringing mobility to a halt- demand for oil has fallen resulted in the global oil price crash.

Ramadan is known as the time when gatherings and activities such as communal prayers, communal meals or banquets and pilgrimages are conducted every day amongst family, friends and also the mosque community. However, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, governments and the World Health Organizations (WHO) have taken several measurements to ensure a safe Ramadan practice while maintaining social distancing. As a result, physical worships such as communal prayers and religious sermons have been avoided and prayers are conducted at home using virtual alternatives.

Like all countries around the world, for Indonesia, diplomacy is a critical part of the life-and death efforts to beat the Covid-19 pandemic. This involves a variety of important tasks: evacuating Indonesian citizens from affected areas, coordinating with WHO on Covid-19 knowhow, securing medical equipments including test kits from international manufacturers, pushing an ASEAN response, ensuring effective international cooperation, mitigating the economic impacts of Covid-19, and so on.