BALI: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo met on Monday to exchange views on bilateral relations in Indonesia’s Bali island, as the two countries inked several agreements in various fields to further enhance bilateral cooperation.
Erdoğan and Widodo discussed all aspects of the bilateral ties between Türkiye and Indonesia, and steps to enhance cooperation.
The Turkish president thanked Widodo for the “successful” term presidency of the G-20 and extended his support for Indonesia’s assuming MIKTA’s term presidency from Türkiye next April.
Established in 2013, MIKTA is a partnership made up of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Australia. All five countries in the group are G-20 members.
“The high-level strategic cooperation council mechanism that we have established together today is of historic importance for our bilateral relations,” he added.
Also, Türkiye and Indonesia inked two agreements and five memorandums of understanding with boosting bilateral cooperation in their sights as top Turkish officials visit the country for a summit of the G-20.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said the event highlighted “the strength and the depth” of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
“The agreements signed today are not just (about) government-to-government cooperation in various strategic sectors such as in the field of defense,” Subianto said, adding that they also sought to step up cooperation between businesses.
He said the ties between the two countries provide “concrete deliverables for the benefit and prosperity of the people of both Indonesia and Türkiye.” Hoping for the accords to be “swiftly implemented,” the Indonesian defense chief said they would “inspire and motivate” other deals, especially for free trade.
On the bilateral meeting between the Turkish and Indonesian presidents, he said the two leaders would “announce a new level of cooperation, with the formation of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.”
“This is an important milestone in the Indonesia-Türkiye relationship since the establishment of the Indonesia-Türkiye Strategic Partnership in 2012,” he said. For his part, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu hailed ties between the two countries, saying there had been “great progress in our ties in recent years.”
“We will soon witness a historic moment in our relations as our presidents will establish the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council,” he added.
After affirming that the deals would further strengthen relations in many fields including the defense industry, research, forestry, environment, and development, Çavuşoğlu congratulated Indonesia for its successful G-20 chairpersonship. –Agencues
