Venezuela eyes new air routes, media exchanges with Indonesia

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The Indonesian and Venezuelan governments wound down two days of senior officials meetings on Tuesday and agreed to several commitments that would immediately be put into effect, a senior Venezuelan official said on Wednesday.

At the two-day meeting in Bandung, called the 2nd Meeting of High Level Joint Commission between Indonesia and Venezuela, the governments of Indonesia and Venezuela agreed to explore the possibility of opening new flight routes between the countries, as well of an exchange of diplomats and media exchange between the news agencies of the two countries.

The Venezuelan government also proposed at the meeting the establishment of the Simon Bolivar Center in Bandung in order to introduce Bolivar's thought to the Indonesian public, said William E. Izarra, the Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Simon Bolivar is a Venezuelan national hero and founding father. "In order to speed up the projects, we plan to invite the Indonesian President to visit Venezuela next year," said William.

Izarra believed that the projects would help strengthen ties between Indonesia and Venezuela.

Regarding the flights, Venezuela had proposed that Indonesia and Venezuela open new flight routes.

"So far, flights between Indonesia and Venezuela had to go through European countries but now we propose that commercial aircraft fly directly between Indonesia and Venezuela," said Izarra.

The media exchange would help enhance the ability of journalists in the two countries, said Izarra.

Responding to the proposal, the director general of European and American affairs at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arizal Effendi, said that the two countries were exploring the possibility of forging cooperation between Indonesian flag carrier Garuda and Lan Chille.

"For example, Lan Chille can carry passengers from Venezuela to Sydney, Australia and then Garuda carries passengers from Sydney to Jakarta or Bali," he said.

Arizal said that bilateral trade between the two countries had doubled between 2002 and 2004. While in 2002 the value of trade was US$21.79 million, last year this increased to US$55.21 million.