Jakarta – Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho in Jakarta on Monday. During the meeting they discussed a number of issues, which include palm oil, investments, and maritime cooperation.
“During our meeting with Minister Cravinho, we discussed a number of collaborations, including on investments. Portugal investments in Indonesia have increased significantly by 2,000% during the period of 2019 and 2022,” Retno said.
Retno said the investments are the record high so far from the European country. In addition to that, Portugal and Indonesia have also discussed about development of renewable energy and blue economy as the priority sector.
“We’ve the same view regarding the importance of accelerating the negotiations of CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) Indonesia-European Union (EU),” she said.
Minister Retno said that they also talked about coorperation on palm oil. Indonesia highly appreciates Portugal for increasing palm oil import from Indonesia. During the period of 2019 – 2022 the palm oil import of Portugal from Indonesia rose by 77%.
“The increase was driven by incentives of palm oil imports as feedstock in producing biodiesel. I restated during our meeting my concern over discriminatory policies taken by EU, including the EU deforestation regulation (EUDR),” she said.
According to her, both countries have the same goals in developing renewable energy and are committed to implementing their joint programs. “We welcome the project of floating solar power plant in Duriangkang reservoir, Batam Islands. The project is worth US$2 billion and can function as a catalyst to attract more Portugal investments and more renewable energy projects,” she said.
The two ministers also discussed about maritime cooperation. Retno said that they talked about the contribution of Indonesian fishing vessel crews, more than 300 of them, to the maritime economy of Portugal.
“we discussed about steps to secure their interests, including through certification and capacity improvement. We are also sounding out collaborations in blue economy, fishing, and fight against the IUU Fishing,” she said.
Besides the bilateral issues, both ministers discussed the regional and global issues, such as the priority plan of Indonesia’s presidency in ASEAN and Indonesian resolve to make Indo-Pacific as a region of peace and stability/ (*)
Source: cnbcindonesia.com
