Indonesia backs Viet Nam's ASEAN future vision

The Indonesian minister made the point in Ha Noi on April 23 at her courtesy call on Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

The Prime Minister welcomed the Indonesian minister’s official visit to Viet Nam for the fifth meeting of the Viet Nam-Indonesia Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC).

He praised the important contributions of the Indonesian Foreign Minister to the success of the ongoing ASEAN Future Forum.

Pham congratulated Indonesia on the successful general election in February, hoping that Indonesia will flourish and achieve the status as a developed country by 2045.

Pham hailed the constant developments in the Viet Nam-Indonesia strategic partnership in all fields, especially in economic domain. Among ASEAN member states, Indonesia is the third largest trade partner of Viet Nam. On the other hand, Viet Nam remains the fourth biggest trade partner of Indonesia. The two-way trade turnover increased by three times 10 years after the bilateral ties were elevated to strategic partnership in 2013.

He suggested both countries step up the exchanges of delegations at all levels and cooperate to organize meaningful events to mark the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic ties in 2025.

The pair agreed to strive to realize the trade goal of US$18 billion by 2028.

In reply, Minister Retno Marsudi agreed to create favorable ways for the entry of Vietnamese Halal agricultural products and exports and early allow direct exports of lobster larvae to Viet Nam.

The minister also pledged to boost coordination with Viet Nam in new potential areas such as green economy, circular economy, renewable energy, semiconductor technology, digital economy, energy transformation, electricity automobile industry as well as production of electric car batteries.

Both sides vowed to enhance cooperation in other important areas namely national defense, security, maritime cooperation, people-to-people exchanges especially the youth and tourism promotion.

The two sides also agreed to continue strengthening cooperation, consolidating solidarity and the central role of ASEAN, including supporting Laos to successfully assume the role of ASEAN Chair in 2024, promoting the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision to 2045, strengthening ASEAN's solidarity and its central role in resolving regional issues, including maintaining ASEAN's common stance on the East Sea issue and promoting the implementation of ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar./.