Both supporters of Indonesia and supporters of the Netherlands in the administration cast their positions as favourable to anticolonialism. Although the idea of Papuan independence appealed to senior advisers in the U.S. government, few thought it realistic. US officials were also concerned about world opinion in favour of Indonesia; diplomatic displays of Third World solidarity were increasing, and in January 1962, Egypt closed its Suez Canal to Dutch ships as a protest against the Netherlands' New Guinea policy. In mid-January, Robert F. Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother, travelled to Jakarta and announced that the United States, "as a former colony, is committed to anti-colonialism".