Jakarta –

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) received a courtesy visit from Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, accompanied by a small delegation at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta. Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed support for the presidency G20 Indonesia.

“During the previous meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada once again expressed Canada’s support for the Indonesian presidency,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi, who accompanied Jokowi to the meeting, as noted in a written statement, Monday (4/11/2022).

Retno said Canada has also stated its commitment to continue to have open communication with Indonesia to prepare how best for the G20 to deal with the current difficult situation. Moreover, Retno added that Indonesia has received similar support from all G20 member countries.

“Therefore, we want this support to materialize, we are working together so that once again the G20 can function optimally in the midst of this difficult situation,” Retno said.

During the meeting, Indonesia and Canada also discussed economic cooperation between the two countries. Canada is one of Indonesia’s most important trading and investment partners in the North American region.

Retno said the value of trade between Canada and Indonesia in 2021 increased significantly by almost 30% and the value of investments also increased by almost 4%.

Jokowi also stressed the importance of the two countries to continue to strengthen cooperative relations in the economic field. One of them is to intensify negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the negotiations of which began last March.

“The president said it was necessary to speed up the negotiations,” Retno said.

“In addition to this, cooperation was also discussed on clean energy, infrastructure and other issues. Canadian investors are interested in continuing to invest in Indonesia,” he said.

State Minister Pratikno and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung also accompanied Jokowi to the meeting.

(knv/fjp)