Megawati congratulates Lee, hopes for better relations

Megawati congratulates Lee, hopes for better relations

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri congratulated on Thursday new
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and expressed hope his
government would work to improve bilateral relations between
the two countries.

"President Megawati sent the letter yesterday (Thursday) and
expressed the hope that the two countries could strengthen their
ties," Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on
Friday.

Hassan said he had also congratulated new Singaporean
Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo on his appointment
to Lee's cabinet.

"Hopefully many pending issues between the neighboring
countries will be addressed soon," Hassan said.

Lee was installed as the new leader of the city state,
replacing Goh Chok Thong on Thursday. Known as BG Lee, he is
the son of former first prime minister and national icon Lee Kuan
Yew.

"We have several pending issues with Singapore, including a
extradition treaty process and the planned establishment of joint
bilateral commission, which we must discuss," Hassan said.

The government has been pushing Singapore to move forward on
the signing of an extradition treaty with Indonesia. Many
Indonesians accused of committing fraud amounting to billions of
rupiah here have sought refuge in the state.

However, the process had yet to move forward as Singapore has
shown reluctance to sign the treaty.

The two countries also have to resolve their common sea
boundaries and a sand exporting dispute, thorny issues that have
strained bilateral relations.

While both Indonesia and Singapore are founding members of
the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), relations
between the two neighbors have been especially rocky recently.

In the global campaign against terrorism, the two countries
were often at odds -- with Singapore accusing Indonesia of being
too weak on cracking down on suspected terrorists, while
Indonesia called Singapore's approach unnecessarily
authoritarian.

Hassan said Indonesia was optimistic that Singapore's new
government would take a different approach in addressing issues
of conflict with Indonesia.

"We are always optimistic that Singapore will pay more
attention to these issues and hope to see a new approach to
settle them," Hassan said.

He stressed Indonesia considered Singapore an important
neighbor and said he wished to see better bilateral relations in
the future.