Indonesia Improves Trade Relations With Indian Government

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto in a meeting with Indian Minister of Trade and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal agreed to immediately resolve issues and technical problems of trade between the two countries.

The bilateral meeting was held on the sidelines of the Meeting of India Indonesia CEOs Forum organized by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi, Saturday (25/1).

"We have agreed with India, we will assign a technical team to discuss all issues and problems at the technical level, and will hold a bilateral meeting again in mid-February 2025 in New Delhi. It is hoped that this concrete step will be able to encourage Indonesia's exports and increase Indonesia's trade with India," said Airlangga in his statement in Jakarta, Saturday.

At the bilateral meeting, the two ministers discussed various strategic issues, especially in the fields of trade and investment.

Initial discussions regarding the trade balance between Indonesia and India are in a sizeable surplus for Indonesia, and various efforts to increase trade between Indonesia and India which have reached nearly 27 billion US dollars in 2023, with a growth trend of 20.54 percent (2019-2023).

The discussion also covered various technical issues related to various trade constraints including licensing, quotas, non-tariff restrictions, customs procedures and others, as well as other issues related to Indonesia's palm and coal exports to India.

In addition, discussions were also discussed regarding the issue of imposing safeguards on import quantities through limiting quotas for Low Ash Metallurgical Chili from Indonesia and technical issues for the trade of several other commodities.

The two ministers also agreed to assign technical teams from both countries to conduct comprehensive technical discussions on various issues and technical problems of trade.

"In February 2025, a meeting will be held again to agree and resolve these various issues and problems, in order to be able to realize the expectations of the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of India, in encouraging an increase in trade between Indonesia and India," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Also attending to accompany the bilateral meeting were the Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Anindya Bakrie and the Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy Susiwijono Moegiarso.