Bahasa Indonesia made its historic debut at the UNESCO General Conference in November 2025, with Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdul Mu'ti delivering the first-ever speech in Indonesian at the international forum held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and Paris, France, marking a milestone two years after the language gained official recognition.
Bahasa Indonesia became UNESCO's 10th official language through unanimous approval of Resolution 42 C/28 at the 42nd UNESCO General Assembly on November 20, 2023, in Paris, joining English, Arabic, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Italian, and Portuguese, according to Hafidz Muksin, Head of the Indonesian Language Agency, who emphasized this achievement surpasses Japanese and Korean languages which have not yet received such recognition.
Ambassador of Indonesia to France, Andorra, and Monaco Mohamad Oemar explained that with more than 275 million speakers, Bahasa Indonesia has gone global and is now included in curricula across 57 countries with at least 150,000 active foreign speakers, demonstrating the language's role as a unifying force since the 1928 Youth Pledge that connected diverse ethnicities across Indonesia.
Minister Abdul Mu'ti revealed that the Bahasa Indonesia for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) program has expanded significantly worldwide, with Al-Azhar University in Egypt soon opening a new Department of Indonesian Language Studies that has already attracted approximately 300 interested students, showcasing growing international recognition of Indonesia's cultural values and national identity.
The recognition implements Article 44 paragraph (1) of Law number 24 of 2009 concerning the National Flag, Language, State Symbol, and National Anthem, which mandates the government to increase Bahasa Indonesia's function as an international language gradually and systematically, with Ambassador Oemar stating this will contribute to global efforts fostering connectivity between countries and achieving sustainable development goals while demonstrating Indonesia's commitment to developing culture on an international scale.
