Bringing Vietnam-Indonesia relations to strategic heights

Vietnam attaches importance to strengthening friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Indonesia

At the invitation of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on June 27-28, President Truong Tan Sang and his wife, along with a high-ranking delegation of our country, paid a State visit to Indonesia.

The visit aims to affirm Vietnam's consistent policy of attaching importance to strengthening friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Indonesia, Vietnam's traditional and important partner in ASEAN.

President Truong Tan Sang (Photo: VNA)

Indonesia is geographically close and familiar to Vietnam, with many cultural similarities. With more than 17,500 large and small islands, Indonesia is the largest archipelago country in the world with a land area of ​​up to 1.9 million km2 and a water area of ​​9.9 million km2.

Indonesia ranks fourth in the world in terms of population with about 250 million people, belonging to more than 300 different ethnic groups, with a diverse and rich culture.

As a founding member of ASEAN, Indonesia has an important voice in the bloc and considers ASEAN a cornerstone in its foreign policy; it wishes to build ASEAN into a strong entity to create momentum in external relations.

For Vietnam, the 58 years of establishing diplomatic relations have proven that Indonesia is an important and potential partner for Vietnam. In return, Vietnam is also highly regarded by Indonesia as one of the countries with great influence within the ASEAN bloc.

According to the assessment of the Indonesian Diplomatic Conference (February 2012), Vietnam belongs to the group of 14 "comprehensive partners" and "strategic partners" with whom Indonesia needs to prioritize developing relations.

In September 2011, the two countries signed the Action Program for the period 2012-2015. The two countries are actively promoting the building of a strategic partnership; bilateral cooperation mechanisms are maintained quite regularly. Localities of the two countries have proactively established cooperative relations to exploit strengths and complement each other, typically the partnership between Kien Giang province (Vietnam) and West Kalimantan province (Indonesia), Ba Ria-Vung Tau province - Padang city; Da Nang city and Somarang city.

In recent years, the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and Indonesia has been increasingly flourishing in many fields. There have been many mutual visits between high-ranking delegations of the State, Government and National Assembly.

The exchange of delegations at ministerial, industry, business, and mass levels took place quite actively. Cultural exchange activities between the two sides were promoted.

Every year, Indonesia grants hundreds of scholarships to Vietnam in the fields of language, art, information technology, etc.

Vietnam and Indonesia have signed over 30 agreements and arrangements, creating a solid legal foundation for further promoting cooperation in various fields.

Economic-trade-investment cooperation between Vietnam and Indonesia continues to develop steadily. Two-way trade turnover has grown well, reaching over 4.6 billion USD in 2012, aiming for 5 billion USD or higher before 2015.

As of April 2013, Indonesia had 35 investment projects in Vietnam with a capital of over 282 million USD, ranking 27th out of 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Vietnam currently has seven investment projects in Indonesia with a total capital of 107 million USD. The two countries regularly coordinate closely at regional and international forums, especially within the framework of ASEAN and the United Nations.

President Truong Tan Sang's visit to Indonesia this time once again affirms Vietnam's consistent policy of attaching importance to strengthening the friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Indonesia, Vietnam's traditional and important partner in ASEAN and the region; promoting cooperation opportunities in economics, trade, investment, defense, security, and exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, including the East Sea issue and cooperation within ASEAN.

And especially within the framework of the visit, the two countries will officially upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership.

The mutual understanding and sympathy that the two peoples have shared over the past 58 years have given rise to the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Indonesia.

The leaders and people of the two countries are continuing to pay attention to promoting this relationship to be better and more sustainable, and bringing the bilateral relationship to a strategic height. That is the basis for us to believe that the official visit to Indonesia by President Truong Tan Sang this time will be a great success, creating a solid foundation to promote the Vietnam - Indonesia relationship more and more effectively for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world./.

According to (vov.vn) - LT