JAKARTA - Marking ten years of Indonesia's strategic partnership with France, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian signed a joint action plan for the next five years in Jakarta.
Foreign Minister Retno said, as the second largest investor and fifth largest trading partner from Europe for Indonesia, France is one of the important partners in the Blue Continent.
"To emphasize the strengthening of the partnership in the next five years, today we signed the 'Plan of Action for the Deepening of Strategic Partnership between Indonesia-France for the Period of 2022-2027," Foreign Minister Retno said in a virtual press statement.
Foreign Minister Retno further explained that several things were prioritized in the Action Plan, including cooperation in the health, defense, climate change, energy and maritime sectors.
He explained that next year Indonesia-France are planning to hold the first maritime dialogue, the first step in implementing the action plan.
"Secondly, health cooperation will continue in the context of strengthening the world's architecture of preparedness in the face of the upcoming pandemic. For vaccines, Indonesia expresses its appreciation for the plan for an additional 1 million doses of vaccine support from France," said Foreign Minister Retno, adding that previously France had provided 3.8 support. million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Indonesia.
The third priority focuses on intensifying communication between the two countries, with Indonesia next year Indonesia will hold the G20 Presidency, while France will hold the EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2022.
It is hoped that Foreign Minister Retno will be able to make significant progress in the Indonesia-EU CEPA negotiations during the French presidency in the European Union.
The next thing that becomes a priority is the importance of fair, open and non-discriminatory trade. Foreign Minister Retno said that fair, open and non-discriminatory trade would contribute a lot to economic recovery.
"Fair, open and non-discriminatory trade will greatly assist the achievement of the SDGs target, which has nine years left. I emphasize that various green economic policies are placed in the context of sustainable development. Only then can real sustainability be achieved. must prevent the misuse of environmental issues as barriers to trade," said Foreign Minister Retno.
Next, the priority of the action plan is related to collaboration in accelerating the energy transition. Foreign Minister Retno explained that the energy transition is one of the priorities of Indonesia's G20 presidency.
"The energy transition is not an option, but a necessity. Therefore, collaboration is needed to support the transition process, including through investment and technology transfer," he said.
"In this regard, I really appreciate France's commitment to support funding for the energy transition project in Indonesia of 500 million euros," he continued.
Finally, the priorities of Indonesia and France for the next five years are related to increasing defense cooperation, with the two countries having signed a defense cooperation agreement last June.
"In the meeting, I repeated what the President of Indonesia said in a meeting with President Macron in Rome last month, namely the importance of technology transfer in joint development and production in defense cooperation," he explained.
"We also discussed strengthening the mechanism for bilateral meetings between the two countries by involving the defense sector, and we agreed to start a meeting or a 2+2 meeting mechanism starting next year," he concluded.
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