Indonesian and Australian Foreign Ministers Discuss Multilateral Cooperation
Jakarta (ANTARA) — Indonesian Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir received Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong for bilateral talks in Jakarta on Thursday, discussing ways to strengthen coordination and multilateral cooperation to support regional and global resilience.
“We spoke about the situation in the region and how we can contribute to regional resilience through the various mechanisms available,” the Indonesian minister said after the meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the talks, he said Indonesia and Australia should make better use of various organisations to strengthen their multilateral partnership, particularly ASEAN.
Arrmanatha also stressed the importance of engaging other organisations, including the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), of which both Indonesia and Australia are members.
The Indonesian minister said the current multilateral system needed to be improved and called on Australia to support reform efforts.
“I also said that we need to work together to promote reform at the multilateral level,” he said.
Arrmanatha said Penny Wong had made time to visit Jakarta specifically to meet him after completing her schedule in Papua New Guinea.
He said the visit reflected the closeness of relations between Indonesia and Australia. President Prabowo Subianto had repeatedly emphasised that Indonesia wanted to be a good neighbour to all countries in the region, the minister added.
The bilateral talks also covered cooperation between the two countries, with the aim of ensuring that their existing communication and collaboration produced concrete outcomes for both sides.
Although the discussion did not focus on any particular issue, he said, Indonesia and Australia agreed to continue strengthening their partnership across various sectors.
“Australia is committed to continuing to enhance its relationship with Indonesia, which it regards as a particularly important country. There is also a high level of trust between the two heads of state,” he said.