Sweden respects Indonesia's territorial integrity: Diplomat
Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Sweden, where several leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are domiciled and have become Swedish citizens, supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia, a senior Swedish official said in Jakarta.
"Sweden fully respects the territorial integrity of Indonesia. There has been no doubt about that," Olof Skoog, director general for political affairs at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview in Jakarta on Wednesday.
In the past Indonesia was not happy with the activities of the GAM leaders based in Sweden.
Skoog, one of the Sweden's top diplomats, arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday on a three-day visit to Indonesia to foster relations between Sweden and Indonesia and expand cooperation in various sectors. He will visit Aceh on Thursday and meet Vice President Jusuf Kalla and other senior officials on Friday in Jakarta.
GAM leader Hasan di Tiro, who has Swedish citizenship, has been living in Sweden since 1979.
"It's true several GAM members are living in Sweden. Some of them have Swedish citizenship. As long as they act under Swedish laws, we don't have a problem with them," Skoog, a law graduate, said while adding that Sweden is a staunch supporter of the peace process in Aceh.
"Sweden has promoted a constructive way forward. We encouraged GAM to participate in the negotiations and we always wanted GAM members to resist forcible independence and engage in the peace process. We are very pleased with the outcome of the negotiations (in Helsinki)," Skoog, an experienced career diplomat who has worked in Cuba, Austria, New York and Colombia, said.
Sweden, according to Skoog, is engaged in the peace monitoring mission in Aceh.
"We are very supportive, not just in rhetoric but very much in concrete terms by putting 13 observers on the ground. We are providing logistical support to the operations of the peace mission. Over all, we are providing US$5 million and 25 personnel -- both observers and logistical staff," the 43-year-old diplomat said.
Commenting on relations between the two countries, Skoog said the relations between the two countries were "quite good". Sweden also considers Indonesia an extremely important player in world affairs. Indonesia is the second biggest trading partner of Sweden after Singapore in Southeast Asia.
For its part, Sweden stepped up cooperation with Indonesia by providing humanitarian assistance after the tsunami.
"Sweden was one of the countries that acted the quickest in provided humanitarian assistance to tsunami victims," Skoog said.
Sweden's assistance to tsunami victims in Aceh has now reached $33 million, Sweden's ambassador to Indonesia Lennart Linner said. Out of this, $10 million has been given to the World Bank's Multi Donor Trust Fund.
"We have also increased cooperation with Indonesia at the antiterrorism center in Semarang, Central Java. We see our trade is going up tremendously and there is a big interest among Swedish companies," Skoog said.
Indonesia's exports to Sweden surged to $146 million in 2004 from $110 million in 2003 while imports from Sweden also jumped to $352 million in 2004 from $191.39 million in 2003.
During his meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Arizal Effendi, Skoog raised the issue of obtaining the visa-on-arrival facility for Swedish nationals.
Every year around 10,000 Swedish tourists visit Indonesia.
Sweden and Indonesia are also cooperating in the international arena.
"Both countries are trying to depolarize world politics. I think we have common views regarding the threat of the spread of weapons of mass destruction and UN reforms," Skoog said.
Sweden, Skoog said, had a big plan to double its cooperation with Indonesia in the next five years.
"We are going to provide $100 million to Indonesia to double our cooperation in the next five years," he said.