Kuala Lumpur (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and New Zealand held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 27th ASEAN Summit at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center here Saturday to increase cooperation in various fields.

"We hope you can visit Jakarta next year," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said at the meeting.

He said he was glad to be able to meet again with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key after their meeting some time ago.

In response, Prime Minister John Key said he does indeed plan to visit Indonesia next year.

President Joko Widodo hailed the plan and hoped the visit would deepen the relations between the two countries.

"We hope we can increase our trade, especially as it would reduce Indonesias deficit," he said.

He said one way to reduce the deficit is for New Zealand to open a market for Indonesian products in New Zealand, especially agricultural produce such as mangosteen, mango and zalacca fruits.

"We also hope New Zealand businessmen would invest in Indonesia, especially in the food and energy sectors," he said.

In the field of energy, New Zealand has been known as a producer of geothermal energy while Indonesia, too, has abundant reserves of geothermal energy.

"We invite New Zealand investors to invest in the geothermal energy sector," he said.

Prime Minister Key hailed the idea of increasing cooperation between the two countries, especially in the trade and energy sectors.

On the occasion, he also praised the way the Indonesian government had handled refugees from other countries.

The two leaders also discussed acts of terrorism and radicalism that had happened in a number of countries in the past few days.

President Joko Widodo said security and law enforcement efforts were important to overcome terrorism and radicalism.

"But religious and cultural approaches are also needed," he said.

President Joko Widodo hoped that Indonesia and New Zealand could also increase cooperation with countries in the South Pacific.

"We hope trilateral cooperation between Indonesia, New Zealand and South Pacific countries would be able to increase capacity development in the regions," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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