page_title: Agus Salim
section_title: Government and diplomatic services
hierarchical_section_title: Agus Salim / Government and diplomatic services
caption_attribution_description: English: Agus Salim being prepped for burial
context_page_description: Haji Agus Salim was an Indonesian journalist, diplomat, and statesman. He served as Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1947 and 1949.
context_section_description: Salim did not join the first Indonesian cabinet; Sukarno, now President of the Republic, appointed him to the newly-created Supreme Advisory Council (Dewan Pertimbangan Agung, DPA). He remained in that position until March 1946, when he was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister (Menteri Muda Luar Negeri) under Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir of the Socialist Party. He reprised that role in the third Sjahrir Cabinet before being promoted as Foreign Minister in the first Amir Sjarifuddin Cabinet on July 1947; Amir, like Sjahrir, is a Socialist. 
  As Deputy Foreign Minister, Salim led numerous Indonesian diplomatic missions abroad. He led the Indonesian delegation in the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi from March to April 1947. The same month, he led a small party consisting of Abdurrahman Baswedan, Rasjidi, and Nazir Sutan Pamuncak to secure diplomatic recognition from Arab states. A fluent speaker of classical (fusha) Arabic, Salim met with Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha, the Egyptian premier, and Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, the secretary-general of the Arab League. For the next three months, Salim and his delegation successfully secured diplomatic recognition from almost all members of the League. 
  On August 1947, Salim with Sjahrir traveled to the United States to participate in a United Nations Security Council session in Lake Success, New York. With help of banker Margono Djojohadikusumo (grandfather of Prabowo Subianto), the two breached Dutch naval blockade with a plane carrying contraband vanilla to Singapore. Returning home, Salim was part of the Indonesian delegation throughout negotiations aboard USS Renville, which led to an agreement that temporarily reduced tensions after the breaking down of the previous Linggadjati Agreement. During the negotiations, Salim's personal friendship with the Dutch chief negotiator Abdul Kadir Widjojoatmodjo (a KNIL high-ranking officer whom he had worked with in the Dutch consulate in Jeddah) helped to smoothen the process.
  Salim remained in charge of foreign affairs in the first Hatta Cabinet, while officially serving ad interim. When Dutch started a military offensive called Operatie Kraai, in December 1948 , he was one of the Republican leaders exiled from the capital, Yogyakarta. Alongside Sjahrir and Sukarno, Salim was first exiled to Berastagi in North Sumatera before transferred to Parapat. With the rest of the leaders, Salim returned to Yogya and reclaimed his duties as foreign minister in the second Hatta Cabinet, having been briefly exercised by Sjafruddin Prawiranegara ex officio with his duties as Chairman of the Emergency Government of the Republic in its only cabinet from December 1948 to July 1949. 
  One of Salim's final diplomatic service was as part of the Indonesian delegation in the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in The Hague on late 1949. Hatta's second cabinet was dissolved on December 1949 and the United States of Indonesia was formed. Hatta, the United States' inaugural (and only) premier and foreign minister, appointed Salim to be a special advisor on foreign affairs. The United States itself was dissolved on September 1950.
caption: Agus Salim casket draped by the flag of Indonesia and prepped for burial, 1954
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A560", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:15 06:46:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Image XPKeywords": "[79, 0, 114, 0, 105, 0, 103, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1152", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7721", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:02 15:34:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:07:02 15:34:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "0", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "0", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1016", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "40960/3", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2304000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}