Indonesian Foreign Minister And Defense Minister And China Will Meet In Beijing

Cooperation (Photo: dock. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Defense Minister Dong Jun will meet with Foreign Minister Sugiono and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin in the Joint Dialogue of the Minister of Foreign Affairs-Menhan of the First Round in Beijing.

"On April 21, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Defense Minister Dong Jun will chair the First Ministerial Meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defense of China-Indonesia (First Ministerial Meeting of China-Indonesia Joint Foreign and Defense Ministerial Dialogue) in Beijing. Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjasoeddin will attend the meeting," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian quoting Antara.

Lin Jian said that the dialogue mechanism between the foreign minister and the Defense Minister or commonly called 2 + 2 was the first that China had done.

"This shows the importance of strategic cooperation between China and Indonesia. Last year, President Xi Jinping and President Prabowo Subianto met twice and agreed to hold the first ministerial meeting of the dialogue with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of China-Indonesia as soon as possible," added Lin Jian.

China and Indonesia, said Lin Jian, are two good neighbors who face each other across the ocean and good partners with a common future, especially this year marking the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"At the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Defense Minister Dong Jun, as well as Foreign Minister Sugiono and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin will exchange views on bilateral cooperation in the fields of political and defense security, international and regional cooperation, and other issues," said Lin Jian.

China, said Lin Jian, is ready to work with Indonesia to follow the strategic directions of the two presidents and fully utilize the dialogue mechanism as an important platform and increase friendship, mutual trust, and strategic coordination.

Previously, on January 22, 2025, Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin had met with Defense Minister Dong Jun to discuss inter-military cooperation between the two countries, not only through technology transfer, but also by strengthening direct relations between military personnel through "sooldier to solve contact".

Meanwhile, during the period of President Joko Widodo, former Foreign Minister Retno Marsidi had a Joint Bilateral Cooperation Commission (Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation or JCBC) mechanism which had reached the 5th round.

The 5th round of JCBC was held on August 24, 2024, with the meeting of the then Indonesian Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

At that time, Retno Marsudi argued that the government of President Prabowo Subianto Indonesia would continue to build strong relations with China, especially since Indonesia-China really enjoy mutually beneficial relations, including in the economic sector, for example, investment from 2014 to 2024 has exceeded 37 billion US dollars (around Rp623.96 trillion) accumulatively.