Bali – Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi and her UAE counterpart, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met on the margins of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) in Bali to discuss bilateral cooperation.
During the closed discussion, they discussed a variety of bilateral issues, particularly the follow-up to Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s visit to Abu Dhabi on July 1, 2022.
“Specifically, we addressed cooperation in the building of the new capital city (IKN), as well as other fields of cooperation in health, aviation, and mangrove development,” the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a written statement on Wednesday.
Minister Abdullah stated at the start of the meeting that Indonesia was one of the UAE’s priority partner countries.
According to him, Indonesia is playing an important role in the region and around the world, as evidenced by President Widodo’s recent visits to Ukraine and Russia.
Aside from bilateral matters, the two foreign ministers discussed a variety of regional and international problems of mutual importance, such as the evolution of the situation in Ukraine and measures to reestablish the food supply chain.
They also discussed topics that are currently being addressed by the United Nations Security Council (UN), as the UAE is a non-permanent member of the council.
Foreign Minister Marsudi, in particular, expressed gratitude for the UAE’s support for Indonesia’s G20 chairmanship.
“They are quite enthusiastic to work together on numerous initiatives that can be synergized between the two nations,” Thohir said after President Widodo met with UAE investors at a hotel in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, last week.
President Widodo and UAE investors and entrepreneurs covered four crucial themes during the dialogue, he added.
The first was air logistics, where he said Indonesia and the UAE could be mutually advantageous partners given the current uncertainties in logistics and supply chains.
The second topic of debate was Nusantara, the new national capital (IKN), where Thohir stated that a metropolis must be built to accommodate rapid economic and population growth.
The government must plan a futuristic metropolis for its citizens, who are primarily young, according to the Minister of SOEs.
“It is impossible for Indonesia’s 50 million young people to enter (live in) historic cities. Of course, we must prepare a future metropolis using renewable technology. The UAE, specifically Abu Dhabi, is quite hopeful about this since it sees other world large cities, which are also the centers of economic growth for each country, as positive,” he stated.
Third, the discussion addressed the growth of marine tourism within the context of the blue economy.
According to Thohir, President Widodo wants blue economic development to assist safeguard Indonesia’s ecosystem rather than exploit it.
