Vietnam-Indonesia Strategic Partnership Develops Strongly and Dynamically

On the morning of January 12, at the Presidential Palace, after the State-level welcoming ceremony, President Vo Van Thuong held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Accordingly, the two leaders agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in important areas, such as defense-security, maritime cooperation; increase experience exchange in preventing and combating transnational crimes... The two sides agreed to promote effective cooperation in the fields of agriculture and fisheries, information-communications, education-training, culture, sports, tourism, open more direct flights, connect localities, businesses and people-to-people exchanges.

President Vo Van Thuong holds talks with President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo.

President Vo Van Thuong warmly welcomed President Joko Widodo on his State visit to Vietnam; emphasizing that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to further strengthen the traditional relationship and Strategic Partnership with Indonesia on the basis of historical tradition, similar values and interests, mutual trust and understanding as well as common commitment to international law.

The President highly appreciated Indonesia's outstanding domestic and foreign achievements under the leadership of President Joko Widodo in the past two terms; congratulated Indonesia on successfully fulfilling its role as Chair of the G20 in 2022 and Chair of ASEAN and AIPA in 2023; wished Indonesia a successful organization of the upcoming General Election, continued prosperous development, and active contribution to peace and cooperation in the region and the world .

President Joko Widodo thanked the warm welcome and expressed his pleasure in visiting Vietnam for the second time as President; congratulated Vietnam on its outstanding socio-economic development achievements; highly appreciated the substantive exchanges with Vietnamese leaders during delegation exchanges and high-level contacts in recent times; and thanked Vietnam for its support during Indonesia's tenure as ASEAN Chair in 2023.

The Indonesian President affirmed his appreciation and desire to further strengthen the traditional friendship and cooperation with Vietnam - Indonesia's only Strategic Partner in ASEAN.

The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the strong and dynamic developments of the Vietnam-Indonesia Strategic Partnership. Exchanges of delegations and contacts at high and all levels have been maintained regularly, most notably the phone call between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joko Widodo in August 2022; the Action Program on the Strategic Partnership for the 2019-2023 period has been well implemented.

Cooperation in other important areas such as national defense and security, education and training, culture, tourism, local connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges continues to receive attention and develop positively. In ASEAN, Indonesia is Vietnam's third largest trading partner and Vietnam is Indonesia's fourth largest trading partner. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, bilateral trade turnover continues to grow positively.

Discussing a number of major cooperation directions in the coming time, the two sides agreed to further enhance political trust through delegation exchanges, high-level contacts and all-level contacts; effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms; promptly develop an Action Program for the 2024-2028 period suitable to the new context. The two leaders also agreed that, based on the great achievements of cooperation over the past nearly 70 years, it is necessary to soon bring the Strategic Partnership between the two countries to a new height.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in other important areas such as defense-security, maritime cooperation; increase experience exchange in preventing and combating transnational crimes; and not allow any individual or organization to use the territory of one country to sabotage the other.

The two sides also agreed to promote effective cooperation in the fields of agriculture and fisheries, information and communications, education and training, culture, sports, tourism, opening more direct flights, connecting localities, businesses and people-to-people exchanges.

At the same time, expand cooperation in new and potential areas such as smart finance, energy conversion, digital transformation, innovation, development of electric vehicle ecosystems and electric batteries.

The two sides agreed to strive to soon increase bilateral trade turnover to 15 billion USD or higher by reducing trade barriers and facilitating the import and export of each other's key products, including rice trade. The President asked Indonesia to facilitate agricultural products and Halal products originating from Vietnam to access the Indonesian market; and encourage Indonesian businesses to expand their investment in Vietnam. The Indonesian President said that more and more Indonesian businesses are interested in investing in Vietnam and hoped that Vietnamese businesses would expand their investment in Indonesia.

President Vo Van Thuong thanked and hoped that the Indonesian Government would continue to pay attention and create conditions for the Vietnamese community in Indonesia to live stably, successfully integrate into the host society and contribute to the bilateral relationship; highly appreciated and suggested that the two sides continue to cooperate in preventing and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, the two sides agreed to continue to strengthen consultation, close coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums; promote solidarity and the central role of ASEAN; and coordinate with ASEAN countries to support Laos in successfully assuming the role of ASEAN Chair 2024.

The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea; coordinated to maintain ASEAN's solidarity and common stance on the East Sea issue; fully and effectively implemented the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and made efforts to promote negotiations to reach a substantive, effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS.

The talks took place in an atmosphere of friendship, openness, sincerity and mutual understanding. After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the exchange of two cooperation documents, including the Memorandum of Understanding on Information and Communications Technology Cooperation and the Memorandum of Understanding on Fisheries Cooperation.

* Informing the press after a very successful meeting, President Vo Van Thuong said that the President and President Joko Widodo agreed to consider and move towards upgrading the relationship between the two countries to a new level.

Based on the positive results of cooperation achieved in recent times, the two leaders assessed that the Vietnam-Indonesia Strategic Partnership has grown increasingly strong and extensive in the fields of economics, trade, investment, fisheries, education and training, culture, and people-to-people exchange.

On that basis, President Vo Van Thuong said that the two leaders agreed on major directions to bring the Vietnam-Indonesia Strategic Partnership to new heights, becoming increasingly deep and effective.

According to the President, the two leaders agreed to promote defense and security cooperation; strive to soon bring bilateral trade turnover to 15 billion USD or higher in a balanced direction; continue to promote cooperation in traditional fields such as education and training, agriculture, fisheries, culture, tourism, information technology, etc.; at the same time, expand cooperation to other potential fields in line with current trends, such as: digital economy, energy conversion, etc.

The two sides agreed to actively contribute to building a united and self-reliant ASEAN Community, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world....

Informing the press, Indonesian President Joko Widodo sincerely thanked President Vo Van Thuong and the Vietnamese side for the warm welcome given to the President and the high-ranking delegation.

President Joko Widodo welcomed Vietnam’s investment commitments in Indonesia, especially Vinfast’s US$1.2 billion investment to develop Indonesia’s electric vehicle and battery ecosystem. Indonesia agreed to promote cooperation in the energy transition and digital economy to boost prosperity for its people and the region.

Indonesia and Vietnam also agreed to continue to maintain regional stability and economic growth through concrete implementation of the ASEAN Vision on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific....

That same evening, President Vo Van Thuong will solemnly welcome President Joko Widodo and the high-ranking Indonesian delegation.

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