On 1 November, several Argentina-Indonesia dialogue groups met in Buenos Aires, chaired by the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Gustavo Zlauvinen, and the Undersecretary for Mercosur and International Economic Negotiations, Victorio Carpentieri, on behalf of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, and by Muhammad Anshor, the Director General of American and European Affairs, representing Indonesia.
During the 3rd Bilateral Consultation Meeting, concrete actions were identified with a view to strengthening and diversifying the bilateral relationship. Argentina regards Indonesia as a strategic partner in Asia and shares with it many positions at multilateral fora.
It was agreed to increase cooperation and experience sharing in various areas, such as tourism, education, technical cooperation, the fight against drug trafficking, natural disaster management, humanitarian aid, and peace-keeping operations. In that vein, direct contacts will be established between the Ministries in charge of these areas, so as to achieve concrete results.
In this regard, it was agreed to step up the agreements under negotiation on technical and scientific cooperation and primary and secondary education so as to promptly sign them. Furthermore, Indonesia notified compliance with its internal requirements for the entry into force of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Agreement signed in 2012.
Argentina and Indonesia are both members of several multilateral groups, such as FEALAC and the G-20. Within the framework of the latter, President Joko Widodo's visit is expected for the G-20 Summit to be held in Argentina in 2018. In addition, as a member of the United Nations Committee on Decolonization, Indonesia reiterated its commitment to the resumption of dialogue between Argentina and the United Kingdom on the Malvinas Question. Finally, Indonesia welcomed Argentina's accession to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
During the 7th meeting of the Joint Committee, it was underscored that Indonesia is one of Argentina's main trade partners: it is the tenth destination for Argentina's exports - the fourth in Asia, after China, Vietnam and India - and Argentina's sixth largest trade surplus. Bilateral trade rose nearly 10% in 2016, showing that Indonesia's participation in Argentina's foreign trade has increased.
Argentina's foreign trade policy assigns great priority to strengthening ties with Southeast Asia, and Indonesia assigns great importance to our region.
At the meeting, it was agreed to strengthen contacts and interaction between the business industries of the two countries in order to take advantage of the current and identified business opportunities, given the complementarity between the two economies, with a view to growth and, especially, to diversifying our trade exchanges.
Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding on Technical Cooperation in Agriculture was signed between the Argentine Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD), and the next step is to define concrete issues of mutual interest to move forward with this cooperation mechanism.
INVAP delivered a presentation on the company's capacities in the field of space, satellites and nuclear technology, with the aim of jointly exploring cooperation opportunities in those areas.
Finally, ways of increasing mutual high-level visits were considered.
Press release No. 496/17
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