Anies Baswedan Turns Again In Tokyo, Discussions With Governor Koike Discuss Public Transportation

DKI Governor Anies Baswedan meets the Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike at his office, Tokyo city hall (Photo via Facebook Anies Baswedan)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan visited Japan to meet Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to discuss the potential for cooperation in several fields, including environmentally friendly public transportation.

"We discussed many things, especially about efforts to revive after the pandemic, cooperation to build disaster-resistant cities and in the field of environmentally friendly public transportation," said Anies through the Instagram account @aniesbaswedan in Jakarta, Saturday, August 13.

The governor of DKI uploaded a photo of the meeting with the Governor of Tokyo at the Tokyo City Hall accompanied by several delegates on his personal Instagram account.

He did not elaborate further on the potential for cooperation between the two cities. Anies also did not reveal when he arrived in Tokyo and how long he would be in Sakura Country.

In the upload, the former Minister of Education and Culture also invited Yuriko Koike to attend the "Urban 20" forum in Jakarta at the end of August 2022.

"He conveyed his willingness and confirmation to attend in person, along with leaders of other major world cities," said Anies.

Tokyo and Jakarta, he said, are "sister cities", with a longstanding relationship, so the momentum of the warm meeting became a new point of commitment to strengthen relations between the two metropolitan cities.

Anies said he first met Governor Koike in 2017 when he first served as Governor of DKI.

"We had the chance to meet face-to-face again in 2019 during the 'Urban 20 Summit' in Tokyo. In addition, there were also virtual meetings when the world's main cities together faced the COVID-19 pandemic," said Anies.

During the early period of the pandemic, Anies admitted that governors and mayors from various countries held virtual meetings on a regular basis to learn from each other, ask questions and exchange experiences across cities around the world regarding the handling of COVID-19.

Governor Koike and Governor Anies were elected in 2019 as co-chairs of the City Forum or C40, an organization of the world's main cities that focuses on addressing the global climate crisis.

"So, communication and cooperation with Governor Koike so far has become more intensive," he said.