JakartaPost-Sept 9, 2022
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has concluded a brief trip to the South Pacific this week, where she reaffirmed Indonesia’s commitment to the region through bilateral initiatives and a more “holistic” Indo-Pacific strategy ahead of a whirlwind of United Nations meetings later this month. After a two-year hiatus of diplomatic visits to the region, the minister headed to Fiji and the Solomon Islands where she sought to forge closer ties with Pacific island nations ahead of a forum Jakarta is hosting later this year. Indonesia is expected to host the Indo-Pacific Forum for Development in Bali this December, after it hands over the presidency of the Group of 20 largest economies to India. In a prerecorded statement circulated on Wednesday, Retno reported the highlights of her visit, which was “tremendously important and strategic” for advancing Indonesia’s “priority agenda” in the region. At the State House in Fiji’s capital Suva on Tuesday, the minister met with President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere and Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama to pursue efforts to establish the Indonesia-Fiji Preferential Trade Agreement (IF-PTA) to maintain the upward trend in two-way trade. The partners will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourist cooperation later this month in Bali, while a bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) has also been ratified. Prime Minister Bainimarama hailed the “progressive cooperation” with Indonesia and acknowledged its support of Fiji’s rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of disasters and the pandemic, the Fijian government wrote in a Facebook post. He also recognized how Indonesia prioritized issues of importance to the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at the G20, and reaffirmed Fiji’s commitment to working closely with Jakarta in pursuit of a “greener and bluer and better future for the people of Fiji, the Pacific and beyond”. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/09/08/indonesia-keeps-pacific-in-good-graces-ahead-of-un-meeting.html.
