President Jokowi Meets Sri Lankan President In China, Discusses Increased Cooperation

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo held a bilateral meeting with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the China World Hotel, Beijing, China.

The two leaders discussed increasing cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

In the economic sector, President Jokowi welcomed Sri Lanka's desire to form a preferential trade agreement with Indonesia.

Based on data, Indonesia-Sri Lanka's trading volume fell 27.5 percent in 2022, requiring joint efforts to increase the trade value of the two countries.

"For that, I welcome Sri Lanka's desire to form a preferential trade agreement with Indonesia," said President Jokowi.

Jokowi also hopes that Sri will revoke the policy of banning palm oil imports.

Jokowi said that Indonesia's superior commodity palm oil is produced by taking into account environmental standards.

"I suggest we form a special mechanism to reopen access to the Indonesian palm oil market in Sri Lanka," Jokowi continued.

Regarding the participation of Indonesian SOEs in Sri Lanka, Jokowi revealed that several Indonesian SOEs have explored real cooperation with Sri Lanka.

Jokowi hopes that Wickremesinghe will support the cooperation, especially in the field of procurement of train carriages and printing of Sri Lankan electronic passports.

Finally, President Jokowi and President Wickremesinghe discussed a blue economy collaboration where Jokowi expressed Indonesia's support for Sri Lanka's chairmanship in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for the period 2023-2025 and welcomed Sri Lanka's desire to become an ASEAN Sectoral Partner.

"Indonesia has also just organized the AIS Summit as a cooperation platform for archipelagic and island countries to encourage innovative solutions for sustainable marine management," said Jokowi.