Attending The UN General Assembly: Foreign Minister Retno Explains Three Important Issues, Reveals Achievements In Handling COVID-19

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi while attending the UN General Assembly. (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

JAKARTA - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Indonesia brought three important issues at the 76th UN General Assembly, which took place in New York, United States this week.

The three issues include cooperation in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, as well as conditions and security, for example related to Myanmar and Afghanistan.

"Regarding overcoming the pandemic, including how to narrow the vaccine gap between developed and developing countries. This issue has become a principle for Indonesia to continue to fight for since the beginning of the pandemic," said Foreign Minister Retno in a virtual statement from the United States, Wednesday, September 22.

"I also continue to encourage and raise this issue because I have an additional responsibility, namely as one of the Co-Chairs of the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Engagement Group. So I will continue to voice the issue of vaccine equality for all countries," he continued.

Meanwhile, the second issue brought up by Indonesia is related to cooperation for the recovery of economic conditions, particularly related to the post-COVID-19 situation.

"And thirdly, when the Ministers of Foreign Affairs meet, they will speak in response to several issues that are currently of concern to the world, including Myanmar and Afghanistan," said Foreign Minister Retno.

On the sidelines of this year's UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Retno also met with a number of foreign ministers from friendly countries, with a total of 28 scheduled meetings that Foreign Minister Retno plans to attend.

"Yesterday I met with the new British Foreign Minister (Liz Truss). We discussed Indonesia-UK cooperation during the pandemic, expressed our appreciation for the vaccine support provided by the UK to Indonesia," he explained.

This includes explaining the COVID-19 situation in Indonesia, which has been very sloping and improving, providing comparative data on COVID-19 cases in Indonesia

"My hope is that the data that I convey will be used by the British authorities as input for conducting a review of their red green list," he hoped.

The same explanation was also conveyed by Foreign Minister Retno when meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. Foreign Minister Retno said the data she submitted was expected to be used by Saudi Arabia in reviewing policies related to the COVID-19 vaccine, Umrah and others.

"When talking about the COVID-19 vaccine, I once again emphasized the importance of the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure (EUL) as a reference in policy making regarding vaccines," he concluded.